Walburga Habsburg Douglas
Walburga Maria Franziska Helene Elisabeth Habsburg Douglas, born Habsburg-Lothringen ( born October 5, 1958 in Berg am Starnberger See) is a German - Swedish lawyer and politician of Austrian origin, which since 2006 has been a member of the Swedish parliament. She's in Sweden Countess Douglas.
Life
After graduating from high school in 1977 in Tutzing ( Bavaria ), she studied from 1977 to 1982 law and a doctorate in Canon Law in Salzburg.
From 1979 to 1992 she worked as a parliamentary assistant in the European Parliament. In 1983, she completed training at the National Journalism Center in Washington, DC and did an internship in the Washington office of Reader's Digest. From 1985 to 1992 she worked as Information Officer ( Europe) for the Ministry of Information of the Sultanate of Oman operates.
Political activities
In 1975, she co-founded the Pan-European Youth Germany, state chairman of Bavaria, deputy national chairman. In 1977 she founded the Brüsewitz Centre (Christian- Pan-European study work ). 1980 to 1987 / 88, it was Deputy to 2004 and Secretary General of the International Pan-European Union. Since 2004 she has been its executive chairman.
On August 19, 1989, she was co- organizer of the Pan-European Picnic at the Iron Curtain, on the border between Hungary and Austria, as the barbed wire was cut for the first time, that more than 660 German managed to escape from the GDR and thus from the Soviet sphere of influence - the largest wave of refugees since the construction of the Berlin Wall - an event that symbolized the fall of Communism for Many:
"I was always sure that the day would come when there would be no more barbed wire between East and West. When I came to the open gate to talked me around all German, I saw the abandoned Trabi, as I knew it was just as we had thought us as organizers, worked. "
Since 2003 she has been Chairman of the Conservative Moderata samlingspartiet ( Moderate Party ) in the municipality Flen, Sweden, since 2003 Board member of the Moderata samlingspartiet in Södermanland. Since 2005 she is a board member of the Jarl Hjalmarson - Foundation, the Foundation of the party Moderata samlingspartiet.
1999 and 2004 she was a candidate for the European Parliament samlingspartiet on the list of Moderata. In 2002 she ran for the first time in elections to the Swedish parliament since the elections of 2006 and 2010, she is sitting in it for her party. It is and was on several committees of the Imperial Council member.
Honorary Appointments and Affiliations
Since 2004, Habsburg Douglas is a board member of the Arab International Media Forum in London. Since 2009 she has been President of the European Women's Union.
Walburga Habsburg Douglas is head of the delegation of the Swedish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE ( OSCEPA ). At the meeting in 2011 in Belgrade, she was elected Vice President. In previous two periods, she was chairwoman of the Committee for democracy, human rights and humanitarian issues, and before that its vice chairman and rapporteur. In February 2008, she was elected chairwoman of the European People's Party in the OSCEPA.
Walburga Habsburg Douglas is lady of the Sovereign Order of Malta.
Family
Walburga Habsburg Douglas is the youngest daughter of Otto von Habsburg and his wife Regina von Habsburg. In December 1992, she married in Budapest the Swedish Count Archibald Douglas. The marriage produced a son went bold (* 1994). The family lives at Castle Ekensholm at Malmköping in Sweden.