Bülent Özcan

Director General for Financial Cooperation and Project Implementation, Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

After having a Bachelor’s Degree in the Department of International Relations at Middle East Technical University in 1999, he completed the Master’s Programme on the European Union Economy at the EU Institute of Marmara University. Subsequently, he attended Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Education Programme in 2011. Bülent ÖZCAN is now working as the Director-General for Financial Cooperation and Project Implementation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate for EU Affairs in Turkey since December 2018. Prior to this position, he served as assistant expert, expert, coordinator and Director within the same institution.

Having almost 20 years of experience in Project Management and Implementation, Mr. ÖZCAN is responsible for the overall coordination, monitoring and evaluation of Instrument for Pre-Acession Assistance (IPA) Funds provided to Turkey by the EU. In that vein, he takes responsibility in management of Bulgaria-Turkey IPA Cross Border Cooperation Programme and Black Sea Basin Cross Border Cooperation Programme. He also coordinates the work on participation of Turkey in EU Programmes and Agencies such as Erasmus + and Horizon 2020.