Morten Helveg Petersen

Morten Helveg Petersen (born 14 September 1966) is an Danish politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Denmark. He is a member of the Danish Social Liberal Party, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. He was elected to the European Parliament in 2014 and served as member of the Folketing 1998–2009.

Contents

• Morten Helveg Petersen 28 Nov 2018 plenary speech on the Future of Europe
• Morten Helveg Petersen 03 Apr 2019 plenary speech on natural gas
• Books
• References

Son of former Danish foreign minister Niels Helveg Petersen and brother of former minister Rasmus Helveg Petersen, Morten Helveg Petersen grew up in Denmark and in Brussels where he attended the European School 1974–77. His paternal grandparents were former minister Kristen Helveg Petersen and former mayor of Copenhagen Lilly Helveg Petersen. He got a Master of Science degree in economics from the University of Copenhagen in 1992.

After finishing his studies, he worked for the European Commission 1992–1993 and for the Confederation of Danish Industries1993–1998.

He then entered politics and served as a member of the Folketing from Hvidovre and later Brøndby electoral district 1999 where he obtained positions as the Social Liberal Party's spokesperson on finance, defence and IT. In 2007, he lost a fight to become deputy leader of the party's parliamentarian group to Morten Østergaard.

In 2009 he left politics and became CEO of Foreningen af Danske Interaktive Medier and after a company fusion became vice-CEO of Danske Medier in 2011.

In September 2013, the Danish Social Liberal Party nominated him as their top candidate in the 2014 European Parliament election. Petersen won a seat in the parliament after the party received 6,7% of the votes in election; thus returning to the parliament with one mandate.

Petersen is considered to belong to the right flank of the party and was opposed to the party's decision to be part of the Cabinet of Helle Thorning-Schmidt.