Sjur Bergan heads the Education Department and leads the current Council of Europe project on Competences for Democratic Culture. He was a main author of the Lisbon Recognition Convention as well as of recommendations on the public responsibility for higher education; academic freedom and institutional autonomy; and ensuring quality education.  He is a member of the Bologna Follow Up Group and chaired working groups on structural reform 2007 - 15. Sjur is series editor of the Council of Europe Higher Education Series and the author of Qualifications: Introduction to a Concept and Not by Bread Alone as well as of numerous book chapters and articles on education and higher education policy.     

The Directorate of Democratic Citizenship and Participation supports member States’ efforts to foster democratic participation and citizenship by developing education and youth policies, implementing capacity-building programmes, and by providing vehicles for member States and specialist representative bodies, notably in Youth, to jointly discuss and determine policies and practices. Matthew, who has been Director since February 2016, previously worked for the UK Government in a range of foreign policy fields, in London, South Africa, Japan, Ghana, at the UN in New York and in Strasbourg. He also worked at No 10 Downing Street on a range of domestic and economic issues. 

French, background of engineer in telecom, career within the European Commission in different areas (informatics, information, culture), and director responsible for European programmes and policies for youth and education.  Retired since 2015, active in the ETTW association (Europeans Throughout The World) as an advisor for education, and in a project for hosting refugees in a local community in Brussels.

Milica Popovic, MA is a political scientist working as a freelance consultant, leading her own research and consulting agency “Nomade” since 2012. Milica is currently member of the Expert Group of the Council of Europe for the development of Competences for Democratic Culture and has worked on quality assurance, recognition of qualifications, and access to education and education for democracy within the European Higher Education Area, the Western Balkans, Caucasus and MENA region. Milica is currently a teaching assistant at the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po Paris) and a PhD candidate at both Sciences Po Paris and University of Ljubljana.

Katerina Toura specializes in Education and Human Rights. Since 2006, Ms Toura works in the Greek Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs, in the Department of European and International Affairs in Education. From 1998 to 2008 she had worked as a researcher at the University of Athens (Centre of Intercultural Education) in the programme “Education of Migrant and Repatriated students” on material development and school interventions. Ms. Toura is member of the Council of Europe Network of Coordinators for Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights, and is currently the leading expert on the preparation of the Council of Europe Report on the State of Citizenship and Human Rights Education in Europe.

Antonia Wulff is a Coordinator at Education International (EI), the world federation of teacher unions. She led EI's advocacy on the global Sustainable Development Goals and her work is now focused on the implementation and monitoring of the SDGs. Prior to joining EI, Antonia managed a project on democratic education in Finland. She has a background in the student movement and is a former chair of the Council of Europe Advisory Council for Youth. She has a Master in Sociology from the University of Helsinki.