148

HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHTH SESSION OF COUNCIL

RESTRICTED SESSION

18 September 2008

 

ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA

The Council agreed that all future reports from the European Particle Physics Communication Network should henceforth be submitted to the European Strategy Sessions.

 

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

  • Draft Council web pages
  • Council document publication policy

The Council took note of the information provided by the President, and

  • approved the on-line publication of the Council's new web pages;
  • approved the President’s proposal to have all paper copies of past Council documents scanned with a view to making them available electronically from the new Council web pages;
  • agreed to invite the President and Director-General to prepare, for the December Session, a proposal for a policy determining which Council documents should not become publicly available immediately after the Council Sessions.
 

DIRECTOR-GENERAL’S REPORT

  • Recent VIP visits to CERN
  • 100th anniversary celebration of the birth of Eduardo Amaldi
  • Update on LHC safety
  • Update on Globe of Science and Innovation

The Council took note of the information provided by the Director-General.

 

LHC INAUGURATION CEREMONY

The Council took note of the oral presentation by the Director-General on the detailed arrangements for the LHC Inauguration Ceremony and of the additional information he provided in response to questions from the delegations. The Council also took note of the Director-General’s request to any delegations that had not already done so to communicate the composition of their official delegations as soon as possible.

 

THE START-UP OF THE LHC

The Council took note of the reports by the Director-General, the LHC Project Leader, Dr Evans, the Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Engelen, the Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee, Professor Fernandez, and the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Steinacher, and of the statements of congratulation by delegations and by the representatives of the Observer States Japan and the USA, and expressed warm congratulations to:

  • the CERN staff and Management,
  • the present and past Directors-General associated with the LHC Project, namely Professors Schopper, Rubbia, Llewellyn Smith, Maiani and in particular Dr Aymar,
  • the first LHC Project Leader Dr Brianti, and in particular the present LHC Project Leader Dr Evans, as well as CERN's past and present Chief Scientific Officers, in particular Professor Engelen,
  • all members of the LHC experiment collaborations and their leaderships, and
  • the participating non-Member State governments and institutes, for the successful first injection of beam into the LHC on 10 September 2008, the successful operation of the detectors with the first man-made beams, and the start-up of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid.
 

PROGRESS REPORT FROM THE TASK FORCE FOR THE ACCESSION APPLICATION OF ROMANIA

The Council took note of the report by the Chairman of the Task Force for the accession application of Romania, Professor Engelen, and of the additional information and statements by delegations during the discussion.

Following the President’s reminder of the formal procedure for the accession of new Member States, the Council took note that a written report would be submitted by the Task Force in December and that the next step would be for the Council to decide, by consensus, whether or not to grant Romania “Candidate for Accession” status.

 

NON-MEMBER STATE MATTERS:

  • Further Discussion on International Agreements between CERN and Non-Member States

The Council took note of the Director-General’s report and of the views expressed by delegations on the draft document tabled by the President setting out the proposed remit and composition of a dedicated working group, and decided:

  • to set up a dedicated working group in December 2008 to address future relations between CERN and non-Member States on a timescale that would provide sufficient time to address the numerous complex issues involved;
  • that, in addition to the support provided by the usual CERN services, an executive secretary should be appointed with the task, in particular, of preparing documentation for the working group;
  • that delegations should provide feedback, by the end of the first week in November, on the draft terms of reference and proposed working group composition set out in the document tabled by the President.
 

REPORT BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SCIENTIFIC POLICY COMMITTEE

  • Draft Revised Terms of Reference of the SPC

The Council took note of the White Paper “Scientific Policy Committee - Draft Revised Terms of Reference” and of the report and amendment proposals by the Scientific Policy Committee and agreed to invite the latter to update the document taking into account the comments and suggestions by delegations during the discussion, with a view to its submission to the Council for approval at its December Session.

 

QUESTIONS FROM THE COUNCIL TO THE SPC

  • Optimization of the Heavy Ion runs at the LHC

The Council took note of the report by the Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee and of the comments by delegations during the discussion, and expressed agreement with the Committee’s view that the question of optimising heavy-ion running could not be properly assessed until experience had been acquired of LHC running at the design energy with both protons and heavy ions. The Council therefore endorsed the SPC’s decision to make its assessment and subsequently to submit its report to the Council in mid-2009.

  • New questions from the delegations

The Council decided to invite the Chairman of the Scientific Policy Committee to formulate a detailed question to the SPC on the relations between CERN and the ongoing development work regarding future neutrino facilities, for adoption at its December Session.

 

CERN PENSION FUND MATTERS

  • Progress report on the situation in the Member States on (partial) internal taxation of pensions or of retrocession of (part of) the taxes levied on pensions of previous staff members of international organizations

(Director-General)

The Council took note of the report by the Director-General on the status of bilateral discussions concerning possible internal taxation of pensions or retrocession of taxes levied on former staff members' pensions, and of the subsequent statements by delegations and the Chairman of the Pension Fund Governing Board, and decided to defer further investigation of the matter until such time as the Pension Fund Governing Board had completed its comprehensive review of the impact of parameters affecting the financial position of the Pension Fund and submitted its conclusions.

  • Progress on the comprehensive review of the impact of parameters affecting the financial position of the Pension Fund

(F. Ferrini)

The Council took note of the report by the Chairman of the Pension Fund Governing Board and of his statement that the conclusions of the Governing Board’s review would be submitted to the Council in March 2009.

  • Next steps

The Council agreed that no further action could be taken until the Governing Board had completed its review and submitted its conclusions.

 

OTHER BUSINESS

  • Update on open access publishing

The Council took note of the information provided by the Director-General.

 

CLOSED SESSION

18 September 2008

 

ELECTION OF THE VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE

The Council unanimously elected Dr B. Jacobsen Vice-Chairman of Finance Committee for a period of one year from 1st January 2009.

 

THE MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE OF CERN AND LEADERSHIP POSITIONS FOR THE YEARS 2009 TO 2013 BY THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL DESIGNATE

The Council took note of the information set out in document CERN/2807, of the presentation by the Director-General Designate, Professor Heuer, and of the comments by delegations during the discussion, and unanimously decided to approve his proposed organisational structure for CERN for the years 2009 to 2013, set out therein.

Accordingly, the Council unanimously decided to appoint:

  • Sergio Bertolucci Director for Research and Computing from 01.01.2009 to 31.12.2013;
  • Stephen Myers Director for Accelerators and Technology from 01.01.2009 to 30.06.2011;
  • Sigurd Lettow Director for Administration and Infrastructure from 01.01.2009 to 31.12.2013;
  • Philippe Bloch Head of the Physics Department from 01.01.2009 to 31.12.2013;
  • Frederic Hemmer Head of the Information Technology Department from 01.01.2009 to 31.12.2013;
  • Paul Collier Head of the Beams Department from 01.01.2009 to 31.12.2013,
  • Frédérick Bordry Head of the Technology Department from 01.01.2009 to 31.12.2013;
  • Vincent Vuillemin Head of the Engineering Department from 01.01.2009 to 30.06.2011,
  • Enrico Chiaveri Head of the Human Resources Department from 01.01.2009 to 30.06.2011;
  • Thierry Lagrange Head of the Finance and Procurement Department from 01.01.2009 to 31.12.2013;
  • Thomas Pettersson Head of General Infrastructure Services Department from 01.01.2009 to 31.12.2013.

The Council further took note of the appointment of:

  • Felicitas Pauss as Coordinator for External Relations,
  • Isabel Bejar Alonso, Ewa Rondio and Emmanuel Tsesmelis as members of the Directorate Office.