Mr. Björn Lyrvall has been working as Director-General for the Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since September 2007. He started his diplomatic career in 1985 as Vice-Consul at the Swedish Consulate General in Leningrad. Later, Mr. Lyrvall held the positions of Second Secretary at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow (1989-1993) and Counsellor at the Embassy in the UK (1997-1999). In 1995-1997 he was assigned to be the Special Assistant to Bosnia High Representative and EU Special Envoy, Carl Bildt. In 1999 he became the Director of Western Balkans Section until 2002, when became external relations coordinator (2002-2003) and later Representative to the Political and Security Committee in the Swedish Permanent Representation to the EU (2003-2007).