During his time in the European Parliament, Schmidt served as rapporteur on parliamentary resolutions on fair trade and development (2006) as well as on policy coherence for development and the effects of the EU's exploitation of certain biological natural resources on development in West Africa (2008).
In his first term between 2009 and 2013, Schmidt was part of his parliamentary group’s leadership around co-chairs Renate Künast and Jürgen Trittin, in charge of foreign policy issues. He was re-elected to that position in 2013, this time under the leadership of Katrin Göring-Eckardt and Anton Hofreiter. Following the 2017 elections, he was replaced by Agnieszka Brugger; instead, he joined the Committee on Foreign Affairs and its Sub-Committee on the United Nations.
In addition to his committee assignments, Schmidt has been a member of the German delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from 2018 until 2021. A delegate of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group, he served on the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy. In this capacity, he authored a 2019 report on the use of digital technologies in the context of elections.[2]
In August 2012, Schmidt was one of 124 members of the Bundestag to sign a letter that was sent to the Russian ambassador to Germany, Vladimir Grinin, expressing concern over the trial against the three members of Pussy Riot. “Being held in detention for months and the threat of lengthy punishment are draconian and disproportionate,” the lawmakers said in the letter. “In a secular and pluralist state, peaceful artistic acts -- even if they can be seen as provocative -- must not lead to the accusation of serious criminal acts that lead to lengthy prison terms.”[3][4]
