HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVENTH SESSION OF COUNCIL

16 December 2010

RESTRICTED SESSION

LHC PROGRESS REPORT

The Council took note of the oral report by the Director-General on the results of the first year of LHC operation, the luminosity and energy goals for 2011, the LHC discovery potential in the coming period, and his preliminary indications of a possible postponement of the shutdown scheduled for 2012, on which a final decision would be taken in the light of the Chamonix LHC Workshop in February 2011.

The Council and the representatives of the Observer States expressed appreciation for the achievements of the LHC, both in terms of machine operation and initial results of the experimental programme, and on the results obtained in other aspects of the CERN programme during 2010, and congratulated all those concerned on the successful operation of the LHC machine and experiments and other CERN facilities during the year.

WORKING GROUP ON THE SCIENTIFIC AND GEOGRAPHICAL ENLARGEMENT OF CERN

The Council decided by consensus to approve:

• the proposals formulated by the Working Group on Scientific and Geographical Enlargement on contribution issues, on the understanding that the Council would, if necessary, revisit the provisions in the light of the results of the enlargement process,
• the Working Group's proposals on governance issues,
• the Model Agreements for the granting of Associate Member status set out in document CERN/2942/RA, subject to two amendments agreed during the meeting, on the understanding that the commencement of negotiations would be subject to prior authorisation, to be issued by the Council on a case-by-case basis, taking account, inter alia, of the work on detailed implementation arrangements.

APPLICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP OF CERN OF:

• The Republic of Cyprus
• The State of Israel
• The Republic of Serbia
• The Republic of Slovenia
• The Republic of Turkey

The Council:

decided by consensus to approve the Director-General's proposal relating to the application of the new accession conditions and procedure to the five applicant States,

took note of the oral presentation by Professor Bertolucci of the report by the Fact-finding Working Group on its visits to Cyprus, Israel, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey, and, in accordance with provisions of document CERN/2949/RA,

agreed that, in line with the conclusions of the Fact-finding Working Group, all five applicant States fulfilled the technical membership criteria, and, in the light of those findings,

decided by consensus to authorise the Director-General to enter into negotiations, in the framework of the new enlargement principles and on the basis of the provisions of the aforementioned documents on contributions, governance and Model Agreement, with Cyprus, Israel, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey, subject to receipt of confirmation in writing by each State, without reservations, that its application remains valid on the basis of the new requirements.

The Council further decided by consensus that:

1. progress reports would be given at each Council Session until the process was terminated, and that
2. when agreement in principle was reached with an applicant State, the Council may decide, by consensus, to admit that State as an Associate Member as the Pre-stage to Membership.

PENSION FUND

The Council took note of the oral report by the Chairman of the Pension Fund Governing Board, Professor Ferrini, on the activities of the PFGB since the September Session and on developments within the Pension Fund, including the changes in governance, implemented during his term of office.

a) Amendments to Chapter I of the Rules of the Pension Fund

The Council decided to approve the amendments to Chapter I of the Rules of the Pension Fund set out in the Annex of the document, for entry into force on 1st January 2011.

b) Actuarial Review as at 01.01.2010

The Council took note of the actuarial review as at 1st January 2010.

c) Proposal by the Management concerning a package of measures towards restoring full funding of the Pension Fund The Council took note of document CERN/FC/5498-CERN/2947, of the presentation by Mr Lettow, and of the report by the Chairman of the Finance Committee, and, on the recommendation of the Finance Committee, decided to approve:

on the understanding that :

i) the measures referred to in § d) of Section III concerning new members and future beneficiaries of the Pension Fund would be submitted to the Finance Committee and the Council in June 2011 for implementation with effect from 1st January 2012,

ii) individual components of the package could not be revised without revision of the entire package,

iii) any future revision would maintain the equitable distribution model contained in the document,

iv) the equitable and interdependent distribution of the four components of the package of measures between all stakeholders would be formalised in a Council Resolution to be submitted for adoption in June 2011, and

v) the Organization would continue to pay a special contribution of 60 MCHF per annum (Item (a) of the Management’s proposal) until full funding was confirmed by the PFGB in its annual report.

2010 SACA REPORT OF ACTIVITIES FOR THE COUNCIL

The Council took note of report from the SACA, set out in CERN/2950/RA, which was submitted for its consideration.

THE FELLOWS, ASSOCIATES AND STUDENTS PROGRAMMES

The Council took note of document CERN/SPC/960-CERN/2944, of the presentation by Mr Purvis of the HR Department and unanimously decided to approve the strategy for the Fellows, Associates and Students programmes for the years 2011-2015 set out in the document, namely:

• harmonisation of the Junior Fellow stipends with those offered by pre-Doctoral schemes in comparable organisations,

• consolidation of the prestige of the Senior Fellowship programme by increasing the differentiation between the Senior and Junior categories introduced in the 2005 Five-Yearly Review,

• increased investment in training elements of the FAS programmes,

• maintaining the subsistence rate levels for Associated Members of Personnel including Doctoral and Technical Students, on the understanding that the full implementation details of the strategy, including the proposed amendments to the financial and social conditions as well as to the Staff Rules and Regulations, were submitted for the Council's approval in document CERN/FC/5497 –CERN/2946.

FIVE-YEARLY REVIEW 2010 - PROPOSALS BY THE MANAGEMENT

The Council took note of document CERN/FC/5497-CERN/2946, of the presentation by Mr Lettow and his confirmation that the cost of the package was taken into account in the 2011 Budget and the 2010 MTP and would entail no increase in Member State contributions, and decided to approve the proposals set out in paragraphs 2.2, 3.2 and 4.2 of the document and summarised in Annex 1, as endorsed by TREF on 25 November 2010.

The Council further took note that the Finance Committee had approved the amendments to the Staff Regulations set out in Annexes 2 and 3 at its meeting the previous day, and that all the proposals and amendments set out in paragraphs 2.2, 3.2 and 4.2 and Annexes 2 and 3 respectively would enter into force on 1 January 2011.

The Council further noted that TREF would examine the current methodology for the five-yearly review in the first half of 2011 in the framework of its review of Annex A 1 of the Staff Rules and Regulations.

The Council expressed appreciation to all the parties of TREF and the members of the Finance Committee for the constructive spirit and the sense of realism which had characterised the discussions on the package against the background of the difficult financial and economic circumstances in the Member States.

2011 BUDGET - SCALE OF CONTRIBUTIONS

The Council decided to approve the scale of contributions for 2011 set out in Table 1 of the document.

THE COST-VARIATION INDEX FOR 2011

The Council unanimously decided to approve:

• a basic salary and stipend index of 0.35%;
• a subsistence allowances and benefits index of 0.0%;
• a materials cost-variation index of -5.39%;
• an overall cost-variation index of -2.49% and - 0.0% indexation of Member States’ contributions in line with the 0%-2% indexation “corridor” mechanism decided by the Council in June 2009 (CERN/FC/5494-CERN/2936).

The Council took note that the difference between the 0% indexation of Member State contributions and the impact on expenses of the -2.49% calculated overall cost-variation index would be used to reduce the accumulated budget deficit.

BUDGET OF THE ORGANIZATION FOR THE FIFTY-SEVENTH FINANCIAL YEAR 2011

The Council took note of the Budget for 2011 expressed in 2011 prices.

PLANS FOR THE MEDIUM-TERM PLAN FOR THE PERIOD 2012-2016

The Council took note of the oral presentation by the Director-General of the Management’s plans for the future programme of scientific activities in preparation for the Medium-Term Plan for the years 2012 to 2016.

CLOSED SESSION

ELECTIONS
(Item 1 of the Agenda)

SCIENTIFIC POLICY COMMITTEE

• Election of the Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee

The unanimously elected Professor F. Zwirner Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee for one year with effect from 1st January 2011.

The Council unanimously decided to re-appoint Professor J. Äystö and Professor G. ‘t Hooft members of the Scientific Policy Committee for a second period of three years with effect from 1st January 2011.

The Council took note of the preliminary information on the candidates selected by the SPC at its 269th meeting and agreed to invite the SPC to submit a formal proposal for their appointment to the Council’s Closed Session in March 2011.

COUNCIL AND FINANCE COMMITTEE

• Re-election of the President of Council

The Council unanimously re-elected Professor M. Spiro President of the Council for one year with effect from 1st January 2011.

The Council unanimously re-elected Professor D-O. Riska Vice-President of the Council for one year as of 1st January 2011.

The Council unanimously elected Professor R. Wade Vice-President of the Council for a period of one year as of 1 January 2011.

The Council unanimously elected Dr B. Jacobsen Chairman of the Finance Committee for a period of one year as of 1 January 2011.

The Council unanimously elected Professor M. Supin Vice-Chairman of the Finance Committee for a period of one year with effect from 1 January 2011.

EUROPEAN STRATEGY SESSION OF COUNCIL

• Call for nominations for the position of Secretary of the European Strategy Sessions

The Council took note of the introductory remarks by the President, recalling the procedure for the election of the Secretary of the European Strategy Sessions set out in document CERN/2762/Rev., and invited delegations to send nominations and CVs to the Council Secretariat by the end of January 2011 with a view to compiling a long list of candidates at the March Closed Session and selection of a single candidate at the June Closed Session.

PENSION FUND

• Appointment of a Member to the Pension Fund Governing Board

The Council unanimously elected Dr B. Moor member of the Pension Fund Governing Board for a period of three years as of 1st January 2011.

The Council unanimously elected Professor D-O. Riska Chairman of the Pension Fund Governing Board for a period of one year with effect from 1st January 2011.

The Council unanimously decided to re-appoint Ms D. Duret Vice-Chairman of the Governing Board for a period of 3 years with effect from 1st November 2010.

OPEN SESSION

STATUS OF THE LHC AND EXPERIMENTS

• LHC Accelerator
• TOTEM
• LHCf
• LHCb
• CMS
• ATLAS
• ALICE

The Council took note of the presentations by S. Radaelli (LHC accelerator), S. Giani (TOTEM), A. Tricomi (LHCf), A. Schopper (LHCb), P. Schieferdecker (CMS), E. Nurse (ATLAS) and J. Schukraft (ALICE).

The Council thanked all the speakers, as well as the organisers, M. Ferro-Luzzi and M. Mangano, and warmly congratulated everyone concerned on the outstanding performance of the LHC machine, experiments and computing grid during the first year of operation.

STATUS REPORT BY THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL

The Council took note of the oral status report by the Director-General.

REPORT ON THE DECISIONS TAKEN AT THE RESTRICTED, CLOSED AND EUROPEAN STRATEGY SESSIONS

The Council took note of the report by the President of Council, Professor Spiro, on the decisions taken at the Restricted, Closed and European Strategy Sessions of the Council in September and December 2010.

REPORT BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE

The Council took note of the report by the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Steinacher, on the items discussed at the Committee's meetings in August, September, November and December 2010.

The Council extended thanks to Dr Steinacher, whose term of office was due to end on 31 December 2010, for his work as Chairman of the Finance Committee over the past four years.

REPORT BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SCIENTIFIC POLICY COMMITTEE

The Council took note of the report by the Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee, Professor Fernandez, on the items discussed at the Committee's meetings in August, September and December 2010.

The Council extended thanks to Professor Fernandez, whose term of office was due to end on 31 December 2010, for his work as Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee over the past three years.

REPORT BY THE SCIENTIFIC SECRETARY

The Council took note of the report on European Strategy matters by the Scientific Secretary, Professor Stapnes.

REPORT BY THE CHAIRMAN OF ECFA

The Council took note of the report by the Chairman of ECFA, Professor Nakada, on the Committee's activities in 2010.