153

HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THIRD SESSION OF COUNCIL

RESTRICTED, CLOSED and OPEN SESSIONS

17&18 DECEMBER 2009

 

RESTRICTED SESSION
17 December 2009

 

LHC PROGRESS REPORT

The Council expressed its strong appreciation and congratulations to the CERN Management and all personnel involved, namely the CERN staff, personnel from other institutes and contractors’ personnel, on the successful restart of the LHC, noting in particular the five key phases that had led to the restart underlined by the Director-General, namely the repair of sector 3-4, consolidation of the machine, hardware commissioning, preparation for beam and beam operation.

 

WORKING GROUP ON THE SCIENTIFIC AND GEOGRAPHICAL ENLARGEMENT OF CERN OF CERN

- Global Accelerators Projects and their Governance

The Council agreed to invite the Working Group to submit a formal proposal in line with those principles for approval at the March 2010 Session, taking into account the points raised by the delegations.

- Scientific Enlargement of the CERN Programme

The Council agreed that, since the issues set out in the White Paper were closely linked to the European Strategy for Particle Physics, scheduled to be updated in the coming years, further discussion of the scientific enlargement of the CERN programme should be undertaken in the framework of European Strategy Sessions. The Council consequently decided to invite the Working Group to complete its work on the issue of scientific enlargement, taking into account the input given by delegations during the discussion, and further decided that the matter should then be referred to the European Strategy Session.

- Guiding Principles for further work on Geographical Enlargement

The Council decided to approve the guiding principles set out in the document as the basis for further work by the Working Group, on the understanding that the issues raised would be fully addressed in the Working Group in line with its remit.

 

APPLICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP OF CERN

The Council agreed on the following conclusion:

“Having received with appreciation five applications, the Council decides to proceed with technical verification and fact-finding regarding these applications. It is agreed that this decision by the Council is without prejudice to the work on the scientific and geographical enlargement process. Taking into account that the work on this process has not yet been concluded, the Council decides that any decisions on membership applications shall be taken on the basis of the consensus on the strategy for the enlargement of the Organization.”

The Council further decided to establish a working group to undertake the tasks of technical verification and fact-finding relating to the five applications received, comprising the following members:

- Professor S. Bertolucci, CERN Director for Research and Computing, (Chair)

- Professor T. Nakada, Chairman of ECFA

- Professor E. Gazis, Greece

- Professor C. Pajares, Spain

- Dr M. Johnsson, Sweden

- Dr G. Vesztergombi, Hungary.

 

FUTURE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CALCULATION OF THE SCALE OF MEMBER STATE CONTRIBUTIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION SCHEME

The Council agreed to approve the introduction, for the year 2013 at the latest, of the new arrangements for the calculation of the scale of Member State contributions set out as Option B in document CERN/FC/5349-CERN/2850 and that efforts should continue on how to implement the new arrangements.

 

PENSION FUND

Terms of Appointment of the members of the Investment Committee

The Council decided to approve the terms of appointment of the members of the Investment Committee of the Pension Fund, set out in the document’s Annex.

 

CERN AUDITS

The Council decided to approve the revised terms of reference of the CERN Audit Committee as set out in Annex 1 of the document CERN/2883 and to change the committee's name to “Standing Advisory Committee on Audits”.

 

RELATIONS BETWEEN CERN AND THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

The Council unanimously decided to approve the terms of reference of the Working Group on the work plan for the implementation of the CERN-European Commission MoU covering the years 2010-2011.

 

 

CLOSED SESSION

 

Re-election of the Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee

The Council re-elected Professor E. Fernandez Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee for a third period of one year as of 1st January 2010.

Appointment of Three New Members and Re-appointment of Two Members

The Council decided to appoint Professor M. Harrison, Professor H. Murayama and Professor D. Wark as new members of the Scientific Policy Committee for a period of three years from 1st January 2010, and to re-appoint Professor P. Braun-Munzinger, Professor F. Zwirner as members for a second period of three years as from 1st January 2010.

Election of the President of Council

The Council elected Professor M. Spiro President of the CERN Council for one year as of 1st January 2010.

Election of One Vice-President of Council

The Council elected Professor D-O. Riska Vice-President of the Council for one year as of 1st January 2010.

Re-election of the Chairman of the Finance Committee

The Council re-elected Dr M. Steinacher Chairman of the Finance Committee for an exceptional fourth period of one year as of 1st January 2010 in order to ensure asynchrony in the starts of the terms of office of the Council President and the Finance Committee Chairman.

Re-election of the Vice-Chairman of the Finance Committee

The Council re-elected Dr B. Jacobsen Vice-Chairman of the Finance Committee for a second period of one year as of 1st January 2010.

Re-election of the Chairman of TREF

The Council re-elected Mr C. Van Riel Chairman of TREF for a second period of three years as of 1st January 2010.

Re-election of the Vice-Chairman of TREF

The Council re-elected Mr B. Dormy Vice-Chairman of TREF for a second period of three years as of 1st January 2010.

 

APPOINTMENT OF ONE MEMBER OF THE JOINT WORKING GROUP ON THE 2010-2011 WORK PLAN FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION-CERN MOU

The Council decided to appoint Professor U. Straumann member of the joint working group on the 2010-2011 work plan for the implementation of the European Commission-CERN MoU.

 

 

OPEN SESSION
18 December

 

2009 2010 BUDGET SCALE OF CONTRIBUTIONS

The Council decided to approve the scale of contributions for 2010.

 

THE COST-VARIATION INDEX FOR 2010

The Council decided to approve for 2010:

- a basic salary and stipend index of 1.6% and a subsistence allowances and benefits index of 0.0% (bringing the overall personnel cost variation index to 1.38%);

- a materials cost variation index of 0.96%, On the recommendation of the Finance Committee, the Council further decided to approve for 2010: - an overall cost variation index of 1.16%;

- indexation of Member State contributions of 1.16%.

 

ADJUSTMENT OF PENSIONS FOR 2010

The Council decided to approve the Governing Board’s proposal set out in the document to adjust pensions, fixed benefits and allowances by 0% with effect from 1 January 2010.

 

Immediately after the end of the meeting, the Council delegations and Observers attended a seminar in the Main Auditorium at which the Director for Accelerators and Technology, Dr Myers, and the spokesmen of the LHC collaborations made a public presentation of the initial results following the restart of the LHC.