165

HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIFTH SESSION OF COUNCIL

13-14 December 2012

 

RESTRICTED SESSION

 

The Council observed a minute’s silence in memory of Mr Paul Levaux, a former long-standing member of the Belgian delegation to the Finance Committee and the Council, Chairman of the Finance Committee from 1971 to 1973 and President of Council from 1975 to 1978, who had passed away on 3 December 2012

 

RECENT AWARDS TO CERN FOR ITS ACHIEVEMENT IN THE FIELDS OF SCIENCE, PENSIONS AND HUMAN RESOURCES

The Council took note of six awards recently received by CERN, of which two for physics, two in the field of human resources and two in the field of pension fund management.

 

STATUS OF THE LHC EXPERIMENTS

The Council took note of presentations by L. Ponce (LHC accelerator), M. Kado (ATLAS), S. Bolognesi (CMS), B. Storaci (LHCb), J. Kašpar (TOTEM) and M. Ploskon (ALICE) and congratulated the Director-General, the Organization and all those involved in the operation of the LHC machine, the LHC experiments and the LCG Computing Grid on a remarkable and successful year of activities.

The Council further took note of a presentation by the Head of the Technology Department, Dr Bordry, on the planning and activities of the first long LHC shutdown (LS1) starting in February 2013.

 

PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE 11TH EDITION OF THE STAFF RULES AND REGULATIONS ON DIVERSE MATTERS

The Council unanimously decided to approve changes in the Preamble to the Staff Rules and Regulations, new Articles S I 3.12 and S I 3.13 and amendments to Articles S II 4.09 and S VI 2.08 of the Staff Rules. The new provisions, which relate to employment and association, working conditions, financial conditions and settlement of disputes and discipline, will enter into force on 1 January 2013.

 

THE COST-VARIATION INDEX FOR 2013

The Council unanimously approved :

  • a basic salary and stipend index of 0% and 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 4.66%;
  • a materials budget cost-variation index of -1.78%;
  • an overall cost-variation index of -0.86% and 0.0% indexation of Member States’ contributions on the basis of the “corridor” principle, pursuant to the Council’s decision of June 2012.

 

FINAL BUDGET OF THE ORGANIZATION FOR THE FIFTY-NINTH FINANCIAL YEAR 2013

The Council took note of the final Budget for 2013 at 2013 prices and expressed appreciation for the sound financial management of the Organization and for the Member States’ continued support and timely payment of the overwhelming majority of their contributions, which limited the need for short-term loans and ensured that the Organization retained its credit-worthiness with banks.

 

CERN PENSION FUND

The Council heard reports by the Chairman of the Governing Board, Professor Riska, and by the Pension Fund CEO, Mr Economou, on the status of implementation of the capital preservation and risk management strategy and the current status of the Pension Fund’s performance.

 

STANDING ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON AUDITS (SACA)

The Council heard the 2012 activity report of the Standing Advisory Committee on Audits (SACA) by its Chairman, Dr B. Jacobsen, and approved a proposal by the SACA for a revision of its terms of reference, based on the experience gained from the first three years of its existence. The Council expressed satisfaction that, with its revised terms of reference, the SACA was henceforth in an excellent position to advise the Council on matters relating to audit, risk and risk-mitigation measures, and, together with the President’s Group, to prepare the Council for its decisions in these areas.

 

SCIENTIFIC POLICY COMMITTEE

The Council took note of a special report by the Scientific Policy Committee on the scientific significance of the observation of a particle consistent with the SM Higgs boson with a mass of around 126 GeV.

 

CLOSED SESSION

 

REPORT ON APPLICANT STATES

The Council took note of reports by the Director-General and the Head of International Relations, Professor Pauss, on:

  • the progress of Cyprus and Slovenia towards accession to Associate Membership as the pre-stage to Membership,
  • the progress of Israel, Romania and Serbia towards Membership,
  • discussions with Romania concerning the harmonisation of its rights as a Candidate for Accession to CERN with those of Associate Member States in the pre-stage to Membership, and
  • recent contacts with Canada, Croatia, India, the Russian Federation and Ukraine concerning those countries’ respective progress towards applying for Associate Membership.

The Council took note of the decision by the Turkish Government to withdraw its application for Membership of CERN and to apply instead for Associate Membership and, in this regard, decided:

  1. that the results of the fact-finding report concerning Turkey, drawn up in the context of its application for full Membership, could be deemed relevant for the purpose of Turkey’s new application for Associate Membership, and that, in the light of that fact-finding report, Turkey meets the eligibility criteria for Associate Membership at CERN;
  2. to authorise the Director-General to enter into negotiations with Turkey on the basis of the Model Agreement approved by the CERN Council for the granting of Associate Member status (CERN/2942/AR) and to inform Turkey and the four other applicants for Membership of its decision.

 

ELECTIONS

The Council held a number of elections and made various appointments made. All the resulting mandates - bar the last two - commence on 1 January 2013:

  • Professor K. Redlich was appointed new member of the Scientific Policy Committee for a period of three years Professors M. Harrison, H. Murayama and D. Wark were reappointed members for a second period of the same duration, and Professor F. Zwirner was reappointed as a member for an exceptional seventh and final year, and as Chairman of the Committee for a third and final period of one year.
  • W. Van Doninck was elected Vice-President of the Council for a first period of one year, Dr B. Jacobsen was re-elected Chairman of the Finance Committee for a third period of one year and Mrs B. Vizkelety Vice-Chairman for a second period of one year,
  • Mr J-P. Amman and Mr P-A. Engeseth were appointed expert members of the SACA for a maximum period of three years.

Following the Council’s decision in March 2012 to extend the mandate of the Director-General by two years, the Council extended the mandates of the members of his management team up to 31 December 2015, namely:

  • Sergio Bertolucci as Director for Research and Computing
  • Sigurd Lettow as Director for Administration and General Infrastructure
  • Anne-Sylvie Catherin as Head of the Human Resources Department
  • Paul Collier as Head of the Beams Department
  • Frédéric Hemmer as Head of the Information Technology Department
  • Thierry Lagrange as Head of the Finance and Procurement Department
  • Roberto Saban as Head of the Engineering Department,

The Council also decided to appoint, from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2015:

  • Frédérick Bordry as Director for Accelerators and Technology
  • Thierry José Miguel Jimenez as Head of the Technology Department.

 

OPEN SESSION

 

NEW APPLICATION FOR ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP OF CERN

The Council took note of a declaration by Minister D. Livanov, the Russian Minister of Education and Research, announcing the Russian Federation’s application for Associate Membership of CERN.

DIVERSITY AT CERN

The Council took note of a report by the Head of the Human Resources Department, Mrs A-S. Catherin, on the Diversity Programme and other aspects of the CERN Human Resources policy, including the Code of Conduct and the "Ombuds" function, and expressed appreciation for the successful implementation of the new Diversity policy at CERN.

 

REPORT BY THE SCIENTIFIC SECRETARY

The Council took note of a report by the Scientific Secretary, Professor T. Nakada, on the status of preparations for the 2013 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics and the remaining milestones of the update process.

 

END OF THE TERM OF OFFICE OF THE COUNCIL PRESIDENT

Finally, the Council bade farewell to its outgoing President, Professor M. Spiro, thanking him for his tireless work over the past three years, and welcomed the incoming President, Professor A. Zalewska, whose term of office begins on 1 January 2013.