Valgerður Sverrisdóttir (born 23 March 1950) is an

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

ic politician. She was a member of the

Althing The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...

(Iceland's parliament), for the Progressive Party for the

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

constituency starting in 1987 and was Chairman of the Progressive Party parliamentary group from 1995 to 1999, Minister of Industry and Commerce from 1999 to 2006, and Minister for Nordic Cooperation from 2004 to 2005.CV at Althing website
She was

Minister for Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral re ...

from 15 June 2006 to 24 May 2007.List of former foreign ministers of Iceland
Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. She has been a member of the Progressive Party's central committee since 1983.

Controversy

In 2006, Árni Finnsson, chairman of the Iceland Nature Conservation Association, accused Valgerður Sverrisdóttir of corruption for failing to reveal details of a report showing that the site of the Kárahnjúkavirkjun dam had

active fault An active fault is a fault that is likely to become the source of another earthquake sometime in the future. Geologists commonly consider faults to be active if there has been movement observed or evidence of seismic activity during the last 10,0 ...

s in the earth while she was Minister of Industry and Commerce. Geophysicist Grímur Björnsson revealed on the television news programme Kastljós that a report he had prepared, criticizing the placement of the Kárahnjúkavirkjun dam, had been stamped as confidential by his superior at the time. Minister of Industry Valgerður Sverrisdóttir had subsequently failed to reveal the details of the report to parliament, as she was obliged to do. Valgerður Sverrisdóttir rejected all accusations, claiming the controversy was a last-ditch effort by the opposition to delay the flooding of the Hálslón Reservoir. The flooding of the reservoir, which was set to take place at the end of September of the same year, subsequently submerged a large section of the Icelandic highlands.http://savingiceland.puscii.nl/?p=556&language=en at Saving Island

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sverrisdottir, Valgedur 1950 births Female foreign ministers Female defence ministers Valgerdur Sverrisdottir Valgerdur Sverrisdottir Living people Valgerdur Sverrisdottir Valgerdur Sverrisdottir Valgerdur Sverrisdottir Valgerdur Sverrisdottir Valgerdur Sverrisdottir Valgerdur Sverrisdottir Valgerdur Sverrisdottir Valgerdur Sverrisdottir Valgerdur Sverrisdottir Valgerdur Sverrisdottir