Niels Helveg Petersen

Niels Lolk Helveg Petersen (; informally Niels Helveg, born 17 January 1939 in Odense) is a Danish politician, member of parliament (Folketinget) for the Danish Social Liberal Party 1966–1974, 1977–1993, and again 1994–2011. Graduated in Law.

Niels Helveg Petersen entered Parliament at a young age and became a civil servant in the European Commission in 1974. When he returned from Brussels, he soon became party leader, a position he held until 1990.

He was Minister for Economic Affairs from 3 June 1988 to 18 December 1990 in the Cabinet of Poul Schlüter III.

After that he became Minister for Foreign Affairs from 25 January 1993 to 21 December 2000 in the Cabinet of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen I, II, III, and IV (except for the last part of the IV cabinet). As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Niels Helveg Petersen joined the newly created Council of the Baltic Sea States, which in 1993 successfully established the EuroFaculty in Tartu, Riga, and Vilnius, of which he became an active supporter.

In April 2008 Niels Helveg Petersen announced that he was not standing at the next election that took place in September 2011.

Niels Helveg Petersen is the son of the former minister Kristen Helveg Petersen and former mayor of Copenhagen Lilly Helveg Petersen. His son Morten Helveg Petersen was member of the parliament from 11 March 1998 and until August 2009.