You are kindly invited to follow TALKS ON MIGRATION SERIES: Fall 2019-2020 organized by Jean Monnet Module on European and International Migration Law
Speaker: Ambassador Christian Berger (Head of EU Delegation to Turkey)
Title: “Perspectives in EU-Turkey Relations and Migration Issue”
Date & Place: November 13, 2019, Wednesday, Bilkent University Library Art Gallery, 12:40-13:30
Biography:
Ambassador Christian Berger is an Austrian diplomat who has wide experience in the Middle East and in the EU. Starting his carrier as the Operations Officer with the Austrian UN Peacekeeping Battalion on Golan in 1987, Mr. Berger then worked with the UN in Gaza and Jerusalem (1989- 1994). He then acted as the Deputy Director at Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna and Secretary of the OSCE Permanent Council, as the Deputy Executive Secretary to the Joint Consultative Group and the Open Skies Consultative Commission (1994-1996). In 1997 Mr. Berger joined the European institutions and worked at the Committee of the Regions (1997-1999) and at the European Commission where he acted as the Responsible for the Relations with Syria (1999-2001), as the Political Advisor on Middle Eastern Issues in particular the Israeli-Palestinian peace process (2001-2005), as the EU Representative to the Quartet Special envoy Mr. Wolfensohn (2005-2006), as the Head of the Crisis Response Peacebuilding Unit (2006-2008) and as the EU Representative in Jerusalem (2008- 2011) respectively . Before he was appointed as the Head of EU delegation to Turkey in November 2016, he was the Director for Middle East and North Africa at the European External Action Service (2011-2016). As a graduate of University of Vienna Faculty of Law, Ambassador Berger holds an LLM Degree from the London School of Economics and PhD in Law from University of Vienna.