169

HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINTH SESSION OF COUNCIL

12 & 13 December 2013

 

RESTRICTED SESSION

 

DIRECTOR GENERAL'S REPORT

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

  • Successful completion of the first LHC run and first half of LS1
  • Honours for CERN in 2013
  • Speech at the UN open working group for sustainable development goals in New York
  • VIP and other visits to CERN in 2013 - CERN Open Days on 27, 28 and 29 September 2013
  • Opening of the CERN/LHC exhibition at London’s Science Museum
  • Start-up of the SCOAP3 Consortium

 

DEVELOPMENTS IN THE MEMBER STATES RELEVANT FOR CERN

Delegations reported on the following matters:

  • CERN exhibition in Warsaw
  • Foundation of new Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics at Edinburgh University - Follow-up to the Niels Bohr Gold Medal award
  • Events accompanying the Nobel Prize awards ceremony in Stockholm
  • Positive impact of the award of the Prince of Asturias prize on the visibility of CERN in Spain.

 

LHC MATTERS

The Council heard a status report on the shutdown activities by the Head of the TE Department, Dr Bordry, and took note of additional information provided by the Director-General on the optimisation of the LHC running schedule up to 2020 in full consultation with the LHC collaborations. The Council expressed appreciation to Dr Bordry and everyone involved in the Long Shutdown 1 for the excellent progress and, in particular, for the great efforts being made to minimise the radiation doses to the teams working in the tunnels. The Council also heard a status report by the Director for Research and Computing, Dr Bertolucci, on the latest data analysis by the LHC collaborations.

 

CO-OPERATION AGREEMENT WITH THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY

The Council unanimously decided to approve the cooperation agreement with the European Space Agency, as set out in document CERN/SPC/1022/RA-CERN/3096/RA.

 

CERN POLICY OF FUNDRAISING FROM PRIVATE DONORS

The Council unanimously decided to approve the fundraising policy and process outlined in document CERN/3098/RA, including the setting-up of a Council fundraising sub-group and the establishment of the CERN & Society Foundation.

 

THE COST-VARIATION INDEX FOR 2014

On the recommendation of the Finance Committee, the Council unanimously decided to approve:

  • a basic salary and stipend index of 0%; a subsistence allowances and family benefits index of 0% (bringing the overall cost-variation index for the personnel budget to 0.01% including the applicable indexation for home leave of 2.50%);
  • a materials budget cost-variation index of 0.84%;
  • an overall cost-variation index of 0.40% and
  • 0.40% indexation of Member States’ contributions.
  •  

FINAL BUDGET OF THE ORGANIZATION FOR THE SIXTIETH FINANCIAL YEAR 2014

The Council took note of the final Budget for 2014 at 2014 prices set out in document CERN/FC/5781-CERN/3087.

 

CERN PENSION FUND

The Council heard an oral report by the new Chairman of the Pension Fund Governing Board, Dr T. Roth, on the recent activities of the Governing Board and its subsidiary bodies and the year-to-date asset performance figures. The Council heard a presentation on the 2013 Periodic Actuarial Review of the Pension Fund presented by the consulting actuary, Mr F. Smart of Buck Consultants (UK), together with a report by the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Jacobsen, on the Committee’s extensive discussion of the actuary’s report at its meeting the previous day. The Council took note of comments, observations and requests for additional clarifications by delegations and of the further information provided by the actuary and decided, on the Finance Committee’s recommendation, to invite the Board, in line with its terms of reference, to examine the assumptions used and the methodology applied by the new actuary in more detail and to report back to the Finance Committee and the Council in March 2014 on the basis of a more focused analysis that would allow conclusions to be drawn that might lead to action if deemed necessary. The Council also decided to refer the additional questions raised by delegations to the PFGB as part of its further examination of the report in consultation with the actuary.

Finally on the Pension Fund, the Council approved, with one abstention (Austria), the amendments to the Agreement between CERN and ESO concerning the admission of ESO staff to the CERN Pension Fund set out in document CERN/FC/5783-CERN/3089.

 

PROPOSAL FOR A REVISED PROCEDURAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE EUROPEAN STRATEGY FOR PARTICLE PHYSICS

The Council unanimously decided to approve the new procedural framework for the European Strategy for Particle Physics, set out in Section 3 of document CERN/3092, for application as from 1 January 2014 to its future deliberations and decision-making relating to European Strategy matters, replacing the corresponding procedures laid down in documents CERN/2732/Rev., CERN/2779 and CERN-Council-S-076/Rev., subject to the amendment to paragraph 3.1 e) of document CERN/3092 agreed during the discussion.

 

CLOSED SESSION

ENLARGEMENT PROCESS

Council Resolution for the admission of Israel as Member State

Following a secret ballot, the Council unanimously decided to adopt the following Resolution, set out in document CERN/3094/RA:

“The CERN Council […] DECIDES

1. To admit Israel as a Member State to the Organization. Membership shall be effective from the date of fulfilment by Israel of all of the following conditions* :

  1. deposit by Israel of its instrument of accession, without reservations, to the Convention, including its Financial Protocol, and to the Protocol on the privileges and immunities of the European Organization for Nuclear Research;
  2. written acceptance by Israel of the amount and the payment modalities of the special contribution towards the capital expenditure incurred by the Organization due in accordance with Article VII 4 (a) of the Convention, as set out in CERN/3079/RA;
  3. from the date of the report of the Task Force, continued fulfilment of the financial obligations resulting from its Associate Membership in the pre-stage to Membership;
  4. written declaration by Israel giving its advance and irrevocable consent to the future accession of Cyprus, Slovenia and Serbia to Membership of CERN, and to the admission of Turkey to Associate Membership, it being understood that, in application of Article 24 of the Protocol on the privileges and immunities of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the effective date of Membership shall not be earlier than thirty days following the deposit of the instrument of accession to the Protocol with the Director-General of UNESCO.

2. Unless Membership commences in the first quarter of the year, in the first year of Membership Israel’s contributions as a Member shall be prorated on a quarterly basis, it being understood that Israel shall, in the determination of the amount due, be credited for any contributions paid by it as an Associate Member in the pre-stage to Membership for the period corresponding to the first quarter of full Membership. It is understood that if Israel’s Membership commences in December 2013, no full Membership contributions shall be due for 2013.”

Application for Associate Membership of CERN by Brazil Report by the Task Force

The Council took note of a report by Dr Bertolucci in his capacity as convenor of the Fact-Finding Task Force in respect of the application for Associate Membership by Brazil, agreed that Brazil met the criteria for Associate Membership as set out in paragraphs 42-44 of document CERN/2918/Rev. and further agreed, by consensus, to authorise the Director-General to submit the revised Model Agreement for the Granting of the Status of Associate Member (CERN/3057/RA) to Brazil, it being understood that the text would be finalized once agreement had been reached with Brazil on its financial contribution, within the framework set out in document CERN/2918/Rev.

Update on the remaining applications for Membership

The Council took note of the update by the Director-General on the status of the applications for Associate Membership by Cyprus, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Expressions of interest by other non-Member States

The Council further took note of a status report by the Director-General on his recent contacts with the Indian authorities.

*On the date of this Council document, Israel has fulfilled condition a) in respect of the Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities, but not yet in respect of the Convention, and conditions b), c) and d) in full

 

ELECTIONS

  1. Scientific Policy Committee

Composition of the SPC: Appointment of three new members and re-appointment of three members

The Council unanimously decided to appoint Professor B. Gavela (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain), Professor M. Huyse (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium) and Professor V.A. Rubakov (Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences) as new members of the Scientific Policy Committee for a period of three years from 1 January 2014, and to re-appoint Professor L. Rivkin, Professor N. Roe and Professor T. Wyatt as members of the Scientific Policy Committee for a second period of three years from 1 January 2014.

  1. Council

Re-election of the President of Council

The Council unanimously re-elected Professor A. Zalewska President of the Council for a second period of one year with effect from 1 January 2014.

Re-election of one Vice-President of Council

The Council unanimously re-elected Professor W. Van Doninck Vice-President of the Council for a second period of one year with effect from 1 January 2014.

Election of the Vice-Chairman of the Finance Committee

The Council unanimously elected Mr M. Bulánek (Czech Republic) Vice-Chairman of the Finance Committee for a period of one year with effect from 1 January 2014.

Election of the Vice-Chairman of TREF

The Council unanimously elected Ms B. Vizkelety Vice-Chairman of TREF for a period of three years with effect from 1 January 2014.

 

* * *

OPEN SESSION

PHYSICS COLLOQUIUM

Antimatter: from atomic physics to cosmology

The Council heard a presentation by Dr M. Doser, spokesman of the AEGIS experiment, on the antimatter experiments at the CERN Antiproton Decelerator and the AMS experiment on the International Space Station.

What the nucleus can tell us: from Parkinson's disease to physics beyond the Standard Model

The Council heard a presentation by Dr M. Kowalska, ISOLDE Physics Coordinator and INTC Scientific Secretary, on recent highlights of the experiments at the ISOLDE and n_TOF facilities and the outlook for the new HIE-ISOLDE and EAR-2 facilities.

Small, Precise, Sophisticated! SPS experiments explore particle physics frontiers

The Council heard a presentation by Dr C. Rembser, Scientific Secretary of the SPS and PS Experiments Committee (SPSC), on the experiments at the SPS accelerator and the unique SPS test beam facilities.

 

REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE PAYS DE GEX

The Council heard a presentation by Mr P. Woodburn, Head of the English Section at the Cité Scolaire International in Ferney-Voltaire, on the system of international schooling in the Pays de Gex on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the national-language programmes.

 

REPORT ON THE DECISIONS TAKEN AT THE RESTRICTED AND CLOSED SESSIONS

The Council took note of an oral report by the President on the decisions taken at the Restricted and Closed Sessions since June and, in particular, of the announcement by Professor E. Rabinovici of the Israeli delegation that Israel had formally notified UNESCO of its accession to the CERN Convention that morning following the Council's adoption of the resolution during its Closed Session the previous day admitting Israel as a Member State.

The Council congratulated Israel on its admission as CERN’s twenty-first Member State and took note of a statement by Professor Rabinovici underlining the decades of cooperation between Israeli scientists, technicians and industry with CERN and expressing his pride in Israel's accession to full membership status.