Olle Schmidt is since 2006 group leader for the Swedish Liberal Members of European Parliament, part of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). He is also Member of the Bureau of ALDE.
Olle Schmidt is member of the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and of the Committee on Budgetary Control. He is also a member of the Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. Olle Schmidt is also substitute member of the Committee on Consumer Protection and the Internal Market.
He also served as Member of European Parliament in 1999-2004. During that parliamentary term, he served as member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, the Delegation for relations with Japan and the Delegation for relations with Slovakia.
Olle Schmidt was born 1949 in Axvall, a Swedish town not far from Gothenburg. After studies in history, political science and information technology at the University of Lund, he worked for example in the meat industry and in Uddevalla shipyard. In 1977 he became the local secretary for the Liberal Party of Sweden in Malmö. He has served as information officer at the Swedish Ministry of Trade and as policy adviser and member of the municipal executive boards in Southern Sweden. In 1991 he was elected Member of Parliament for the Liberal party, from which position he moved on to become Member of the European Parliament in 1994.
Among his core issues of interest are: human rights and democratisation, gender equality, and the economic and financial issues. He has taken a special interest in the case of Dawit Isaak, the Swedish journalist imprisoned in Eritrea without any fair trial.
Olle Schmidt also has a passionate interest in soccer.