European Union government ministers who met for a long day to discuss climate change policies on Thursday were surprised by a fresh-faced participant at the negotiating table: a three-month-old baby.
Swedish Climate Minister Romina Pourmokhtari brought her son Adam to an EU Council meeting in Luxembourg, to highlight the benefits of parental leave policies that do not force women to choose between work and family responsibilities.
“I wanted to set an example of not having to make that choice,” Pourmokhtari said. “Which of course requires having a partner who is not a dinosaur, someone who is completely modern and able to keep up.”
An official at the Council of the European Union confirmed that this is the first time, to the institution’s knowledge, that a child has joined a meeting of European Union ministers.
Pourmokhtari, 30, was the youngest government minister in Sweden’s history when she took office in 2022. She has just returned from paternity leave, while her husband was on leave until Sweden’s elections in September and traveled with her to Luxembourg to care for Adam. Sweden has one of the most generous parental leave policies in the world, funded by the country’s high tax system, which has become a political flashpoint in the election campaign.
Fathers get about 16 months of paid leave in total. Of this amount, 90 days are reserved for each parent separately and cannot be transferred to the other. If a parent does not take their allotted portion, those days will be forfeited.
