ABOUT
Bjørn Berge
Culture · Sport · Democracy · Human Rights · Rule of Law
Thirty years of work at the centre of European multilateral institutions, most recently as Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
Independent advice for governments, federations, cultural institutions and companies operating where politics, values and public trust meet.
01
COUNCIL OF EUROPE
Deputy Secretary General, 2021–2026.
02
WADA FOUNDATION BOARD
European representative.
03
NORWEGIAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Diplomat and adviser to ministers.
04
COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS
Director General and Secretary.
Biography
Bjørn Berge served as Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe from 2021 to 2026, with responsibility across the Organisation's political, cultural and human-rights portfolios. He came to the post after a career in the Norwegian foreign service and a long period inside the Council's own machinery, including as Director General and Secretary of the Committee of Ministers.
His work has consistently sat at the intersection of legal obligation and political will: enlargement and exclusion, convention monitoring, cultural cooperation across contested borders, and the integrity of sport as a public institution. He has chaired negotiations, managed crises in the Council's decision-making bodies, and advised governments on reforms that required both technical precision and political timing.
He writes and lectures in Norwegian, English and French, and now advises independently from Strasbourg and Oslo.
Career
2021–2026
Deputy Secretary General
COUNCIL OF EUROPE
Political and institutional leadership across culture, democracy, human rights and rule-of-law portfolios.
2016–2021
Director General and Secretary
COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS
Secretary to the Organisation's decision-making body during a period of sustained institutional strain.
2013–2016
Ambassador and Permanent Representative
NORWEGIAN FOREIGN SERVICE
Multilateral negotiation, coalition-building and treaty work on behalf of Norway.
2004–2013
Diplomat and adviser to ministers
MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Policy advice at ministerial level, with postings across European capitals.
Ongoing
European representative
WADA FOUNDATION BOARD
Governance and integrity oversight in international anti-doping.
Recurring themes
Obligation over declaration
Commitments matter to the extent someone is required to report against them. Ratification is a beginning; the steady, sometimes uncomfortable work of implementation is what gives conventions their weight.
Institutions as maintenance
Democratic infrastructure decays quietly and is repaired slowly, in committee. The task is less dramatic than founding, but no less important.
Culture as legitimacy
Cultural cooperation survives political ruptures that formal channels cannot. It is where societies rehearse the shared account of themselves that politics later claims.
Integrity as governance
Integrity failures are structural before they are individual. The question is not only who did wrong, but which arrangement made it possible.
SPEAKING AND TEACHING
Keynotes, panel chairing and university lectures on European institutions, sport integrity, cultural policy and democratic security. Available in Norwegian, English and French.
Considering an engagement, a keynote or a review?
Write a few lines about the question you are working on. Replies within three working days.