FORA.tv Speaker - Christian Schmidt

Christian Schmidt was appointed a parliamentary state secretary to the federal minister of defense in November 2005. Previously, he was defense spokesman for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) parliamentary group in the German Parliament, a member of the Defense Committee, and an alternate member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Mr. Schmidt was elected as a member of the German Parliament in 1990, where he held the position of foreign and security affairs spokesman of the CSU group of parliamentarians from Bavaria and was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Since 1999, he has been a member of the Advisory Council of the German-Czech Discussion Forum and chairman of the German-British Parliamentary Friendship Group. Mr. Schmidt studied law in Erlangen and Lausanne. Upon completion of his legal studies in 1985, with the second state examination in law, he worked as a lawyer, predominantly in the fields of labor law and competition law.