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.

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 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] In late 2016, Schmidt was part of a group of German left-leaning lawmakers from the Green Party, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Left Party who met to explore the possibility of forming a coalition government to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel in the 2017 elections.