Swedish Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari attended the EU Council meeting in Luxembourg with her three-month-old baby, Adam, saying it demonstrated that women do not have to choose between being a present minister and a present mother.

Ms Pourmokhtari, 30, was the first to attend such a gathering with a baby, according to an EU Council official at the climate policy meeting.

“Happy also to be an example of not having to choose between being a present minister and a present mother,” she told journalists as the baby rested on her chest. “There are many things that make Europe a wonderful place to live. One of them being just this: that we can have the possibility of attending meetings and attending to my child.”

Ms Pourmokhtari, Sweden’s youngest minister in history, was appointed at 26 in 2022 and has just returned from parental leave. Her husband, who is on leave, travelled with her to care for their baby.

Sweden offers parents about 16 months of paid parental leave funded with taxes, including 90 days of non-transferable leave for each parent, introduced to encourage fathers’ involvement in childcare.

Ms Pourmokhtari said the policy made it “much less controversial” for her husband to care for the baby.

While calling for more flexible parental leave rules, she noted that the policy went beyond merely spending taxpayer money on extended leave periods.

“It’s creating a lot of value that shouldn’t be underestimated. Value that might not always be economic—but in the end, might also be economic in not having burnt-out workers,” she said.