Welcome Message from Ambassador Hans Dahlgren, Head of the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the International Organizations in Geneva

Sweden assumed the Presidency of the European Union on July 1, 2009 and will hand over to Spain on January 1, 2010. For six months, we will preside over the meetings of the twenty-seven EU member states in Brussels, Sweden and across the world. Here in Geneva, that means leading several hundred EU coordination meetings, countless meetings with other UN member states and groups and preparing a large number of EU statements in the UN and other organizations.

To strengthen the EU’s cooperation and political role in the world is one key objective of our Presidency. In respect to the International Organizations in Geneva, we want to strengthen the EU as an effective and coherent global actor by working towards increased EU unity and by being prepared to react to unexpected international crises. Several of the priority issues of our EU Presidency, such as tackling climate change and the financial crisis or making development policy more effective, have a prominent place on the agenda here in Geneva.

The EU is active across the full range of international issues, including trade, crisis management, development policy, peace building, humanitarian assistance, environment, and human rights. Working for effective multilateral solutions is an EU priority. The European Union and its member states are together the largest financial contributor to the UN system. We hope that our Presidency can bring the EU and the UN and other International Organizations ever closer through increased cooperation and mutually reinforcing external action.

As Presidency, we have the ambition to be transparent and responsive. I hope that our Presidency website www.se2009.eu, and the website of the Swedish diplomatic portal www.swedenabroad.com will be able to provide any further information that you may want regarding Sweden or our EU Presidency.

Hans Dahlgren
Permanent Representative of Sweden

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About the Mission

The Mission pursues a wide range of Sweden’s international objectives, including promoting development and respect for human rights, protecting health and the environment, negotiating freer and fairer global trade, and ensuring speedy and effective responses to humanitarian disasters.

We try to promote our objectives through our work with the International Organizations in Geneva. Some examples of the many organizations that we cooperate with can be found below:
-United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG)
-Conference on Disarmament (CD)
-World Trade Organization (WTO)
-United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
-World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
-Economic Commission for Europe (ECE)
-International Trade Centre (ITC)
-Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL)
-Agency for International Trade Information and Cooperation (AITIC)
-International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
-Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
-European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
-International Labour Organization (ILO)
-World Health Organization (WHO)
-Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
-Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
-Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
-International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
-International Organisation for Migration (IOM)
-World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

We hope that you find our website useful. Please contact us if you have any comments, suggestions or queries.