179

HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-NINTH SESSION OF COUNCIL

17 and 18 March 2016

 

RESTRICTED SESSION

 

DIRECTOR GENERAL’S REPORT

The Director-General gave an oral report on the following matters:

  • the new organisational and management structure, including the reorganisation of activities in the field of medical applications,
  • new initiatives to strengthen dialogue with the Member States,
  • a review of CERN’s human and financial resources by an external review committee,
  • additional reviews in the administrative sector,
  • protocol visits to date in 2016.

 

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN CERN AND THE QATAR FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CONCERNING SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL COOPERATION IN HIGH-ENERGY PHYSICS)

The Council unanimously decided to approve the proposed Cooperation Agreement with the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.

 

LHC MATTERS

The Council heard a presentation by the Director for Accelerators and Technology, Dr Bordry, on the year-end technical stop of the LHC and its injectors, the repairs to the CMS cold box and the plan for bringing the LHC back into operation at 13 TeV energy and 1034 cm-2s-1 nominal luminosity, with the objective of delivering an integrated luminosity of 25 inverse femtobarns to both ATLAS and CMS by the end of the year. The Council also heard a presentation by the Director for Research and Scientific Computing, Professor Elsen, on the LHC experiments and computing and a summary of the CERN recognised experiments.

 

ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT FOR 2015

The Council took note of the information set out in the preliminary annual progress report, of the presentation by the Director for Finance and Human Resources, Dr Steinacher, and of the reports by the Scientific Policy Committee and Finance Committee Chairs on the related discussions at the committees’ respective meetings earlier in the week.

 

INFORMATION ON THE MEDIUM-TERM PLAN FOR THE PERIOD 2017-2021

The Council heard an oral presentation by the Director-General on the preliminary ideas for the Medium-Term Plan for the period 2017-2021, of the reports by the Scientific Policy Committee and Finance Committee Chairs on the related discussions at the committees’ respective meetings earlier in the week, and of the comments by delegations during the discussion.
        

CERN PENSION FUND

The Council heard an oral report by the Chair of the Pension Fund Governing Board, Dr T. Roth, on the activities of the Board and the Investment Committee since the Council’s December 2015 meeting.

 

CLOSED SESSION
        

ENLARGEMENT PROCESS

The Council heard a presentation by the Director of International Relations, Ms C. Warakaulle, on possible future directions for geographical enlargement, and an oral status report by the Director-General on the progress of the applications from Azerbaijan, Brazil, Croatia, Cyprus, India, Romania, the Russian Federation, Slovenia and Ukraine.

 

LITHUANIA

The Council took note of the application file and letter received from the government of Lithuania and of the further information provided by the Director-General and unanimously decided to establish a fact-finding task force in accordance with the applicable procedure set out in document CERN/2918/Rev., with the following composition:

  • Ms C. Warakaulle, CERN Director for International Relations,
  • Professor E. Elsen, CERN Director for Research and Scientific Computing,
  • Dr C. Schaefer of CERN’s Non-Member States Relations section,
  • Professor J. Äystö, Council Delegate for Finland.

 

IRELAND

The Council took note of a letter received from the government of Ireland and invited the Director-General to encourage the Irish government to submit an application file in due course.

 

CONTACTS WITH OTHER NON-MEMBER STATES

The Council took note of information provided by the Director-General on recent contacts with Belarus, Canada, Estonia, Georgia and Latvia.
        

ELECTIONS

Call for Nominations for the Next Chair of the Finance Committee

The Council agreed to invite delegations to send their nominations to the Council Secretariat by 30 May 2016 at the latest with a view to a first discussion of the nominees at the June Closed Session and an election at the September Closed Session.

Pension Fund Governing Board

The Council appointed Dr V. Halloin (Belgium) member of the Pension Fund Governing Board for a period of three years, with effect from 1 April 2016.

Election of one Vice-President of Council

The Council elected Professor J. Gaardhøje (Denmark) Vice-President of the Council for a period of one year, with effect from 1 July 2016.