Mr Bjørn Berge serves as the Council of Europe’s Deputy Secretary General since 1 March 2021.

As the Deputy Secretary General he is involved in a number of key areas of the work of the Organisation, including advising and overseeing the implementation of the Secretary General’s reform agenda, in line with the decisions and priorities of the Committee of Ministers.

His priorities include shaping the Programme and Budget, while ensuring that the Organisation’s activities have maximum impact in advancing democracy, human rights and the rule of law. He also oversees the Council of Europe’s staff policy, as well as other key areas of the work of the Organisation.

Before taking up his post, Mr Berge was for a period of four years Director General and Secretary to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

Between 2009-2017, he served as Director of the Private Office of the Secretary General and the Deputy Secretary General, helping to prepare, co-ordinate and implement a number of comprehensive reforms of the Organisation.

Mr Berge has over thirty years of international professional experience.

As a former Norwegian diplomat, he served as International Adviser to the Prime Minister and as Deputy Director of the Foreign Minister’s Cabinet responsible for all matters related to Parliament. He also served as speechwriter to three Norwegian Foreign Ministers.

Mr Berge has published several books on a range of issues relating to speech writing and speeches, as well as articles on the Council of Europe’s mandate and work.

He was a Fulbright Scholar and holds a M.A. in International Relations from the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, Washington D.C., USA.

Carmen Pérez González is an associate professor of Public International Law at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain). She has written extensively in the area of International and EU sports law, anti-doping and the protection of athletes’ fundamental rights.  Between 2005 and 2014 Carmen served as a Member of the Spanish Committee on Sport Discipline (Spanish Sports Council). Since August 2018, she is the President of the Disciplinary Committee of the Royal Spanish Football Association. Between September 2015 and July 2016, she served as Member of the High-Level Group on Sport Diplomacy established by the European Commission.

She has been the project leader of a research project funded by the Spanish Sports Council on the role of sport in EU Law a project partner of two Erasmus+ funded projects focused on EU Sport diplomacy. She is the Chair Holder of the UNESCO Chair ELIS (Education Linkage through International Sports) in Sport diplomacy and development of a human rights culture through sport established in 2021 at UC3M.

Catherine Chabaud is a French journalist and sailor, born on 29th November 1962 in Bron (Rhône). During the third edition of the Vendée Globe (1996-1997), she became the first woman to complete a round-the-world sailing race, single-handed, racing and non-stop. It was during her races that her commitment to protecting the environment was born, after witnessing the state of pollution in the ocean. Her interest in sustainable development was first expressed through her work as a journalist, then through associative activities and finally through her political commitment.

She co-founded the Ocean and Climate platform and launched an initiative to recognized the ocean as a “common good of humanity". She was advisor to the Economic, Social and Environmental Council and then delegate for the sea and coastline at the French Ministry of the Environment, Energy and the Sea from 26 February 2016 to 13 November 2017. On 26 May 2019, she was elected as a Member of the European Parliament on the Renaissance list, affiliated with the MoDem. She is active in the European Parliament in the Committees on Development, Environment and Fisheries and works on maritime topics. On 9 November 2022
she set off from Saint-Malo (France) on the Route du Rhum, a legendary solo yacht race from Brittany to Guadeloupe. The origin of this participation is directly linked to her mandate as a Member of the European Parliament, to raise awareness of maritime issues and the protection of the ocean.