158

HUNDRED AND FIFTY-EIGHTH SESSION OF COUNCIL

17 March 2011

RESTRICTED SESSION

 

MATTERS ARISING FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING

Procedure for the appointment of the future External Auditors of the Organization

The Council unanimously decided to approve the recommendation of the Standing Advisory Committee on Audits (SACA) regarding the procedure for the appointment of the future External Auditors of the Organization. Accordingly, on the recommendation of the SACA, the Council agreed on the following procedure for appointing the future External Auditors of the Organization:

  1. in the first half of 2011, the President should send a call for expressions of interest to the Supreme Audit Institutions of all 20 Member States, with a copy to the heads of Member State delegations;
  2. the call for expressions of interest should specify that the audit is to be conducted in accordance with INTOSAI standards and should include a deadline for replies and details of the current financial and practical arrangements, and
  3. the SACA, in line with its terms of reference, should analyse the resulting proposals and make a ranking recommendation based on compliance with the INTOSAI standards.

 

PRESIDENT'S REPORT

Proposed OECD study on the social and economic impact of science using CERN and the LHC as a test bed

The Council welcomed the information provided by the President on a proposed OECD study on the social and economic impact of science using CERN and the LHC as a test bed.

 

MEMBER STATE MATTERS

The Council took note of the departure of the UK Delegate, Mr Paul Williams, and invited the United Kingdom delegation to convey to Mr Williams its sincere thanks for the many contributions he had made to its work.

 

LHC PROGRESS REPORT

The Council took note of reports by the Director for Accelerators and Technology, Dr Myers, and by the Director of Research and Computing, Professor Bertolucci, on the work performed on the LHC machine, experiments and computing grid during the technical stop in January and February 2011, on the reasons for operation of the LHC at a maximum energy of 3.5 TeV per beam in 2011, on physics prospects for 2011-2012 and on the latest results from the experiments at the AD facility and from the CLOUD experiment.

The Council further took note of reports by the Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee on the related discussions at its March 2011 meeting, including its endorsement of the physics-driven decision to defer the shutdown to 2013 and of the decision to run at a maximum energy of 3.5 TeV per beam in 2011, and by the Chairman of the Finance Committee on the latter's discussions at its meeting the previous day, and of statements by delegations and representatives of the Observer States.

The Council congratulated the Management, the staff, the collaborations and all those concerned on the successful operation of the LHC machine, experiments and computing grid in 2010 and expressed appreciation for the interesting results achieved so far and for the rapid start-up in 2011, looking forward to the next two very exciting years for LHC, for CERN and for particle physics in large.

 

INFORMATION ON THE MEDIUM-TERM PLAN FOR THE PERIOD 2012-2016

The Council took note of a presentation by the Director-General on the overall framework and boundary conditions for the Medium-Term Plan for the period 2012-2016.

 

OTHER BUSINESS

Departure of the Danish Delegate

The Council expressed warm appreciation to Mrs B. Sode-Mogensen for her outstanding service to the Council and the Organization as Danish Delegate over a period spanning nearly 30 years.

 

CLOSED SESSION

 

REPORT ON FIVE APPLICANT STATES

The Council took note of a report by the Head of International Relations, Professor Pauss, on progress in the negotiations with the five States applying for Associate Membership as the pre-stage to Membership following the Council’s December 2010 decision.

 

ELECTIONS

Call for nomininations - Vice-Chairman of the Finance Committee

The Council decided by consensus to elect Mrs B. Vizkelety (Hungary) Vice-Chairman of the Finance Committee for a period of one year with retroactive effect from 1 January 2011.

 

SCIENTIFIC POLICY COMMITTEE

  • Appointment of three new members

The Council unanimously decided to appoint:

  • Professor Natalie A. Roe (US),
  • Professor Dr Leonid Rivkin (Switzerland),
  • Professor Terry Wyatt (UK),

as new members of the SPC for a first term of office until 31 December 2013.

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