Urmas Paet

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Member of party
Eesti Reformierakond
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Field of expertise: Foreign Affairs and Defence


Urmas Paet graduated from the University of Tartu in 1996 with a BA in political science and continued his graduate studies there, but without obtaining the degree. He was active in journalism during his studies, first at Estonian Radio and later at Postimees, a mainstream daily and one of Estonia's most popular newspapers.

Paet continued his career in journalism until 1999, when he entered politics by joining the Reform Party and becoming professional advisor. He served as the Deputy Mayor of Nõmme (a district of Tallinn) from 1999 to 2003, when he became Estonian Minister of Culture. In this capacity, he helped launch a new theatre, Theatre NO99.

Paet remained in that position until April 2005, when he became Foreign Minister.

Paet has been a Member of the European Parliament since the 2014 European elections, first serving on the Committee on Budgets from 2014 until 2019. In this capacity, he authored a 2016 parliamentary resolution in favor of plans to increase European spending on military missions, as well as developing and sharing assets like helicopters.

Following the 2019 elections, Paet moved to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and its Subcommittee on Security and Defence. In addition to his committee assignments, he is a member of the parliament's delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); and was also part of a cross-party working group in charge of drafting the European Parliament's four-year work program on foreign policy.

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