A word from the DG: Decisions from Council

At the CERN Council session last week, there was an announcement of the LHC start-up schedule, a debate about the medium term plan, good news from the Pension Fund and a lively discussion on the five-yearly review.

I emailed CERN personnel the management's position on the five-yearly review earlier in the year. The 11-point proposal submitted to Council aims to ensure that the financial and social conditions offered by CERN remain in line with prevailing conditions in our Member States, and that CERN offers a dynamic merit-oriented advancement system with a modern family policy allowing the Organization to continue to recruit and retain the staff it needs.

Council approved most of the 11 points presented, but could not reach agreement on two. These points concern non-resident allowances and compensation in principle to staff for possible increases in contributions to the CERN health insurance scheme. Non-resident allowances have been under discussion for many years, with no agreement between Member States, and it is clear that Council wishes a proposal that addresses both the rationale behind the current scheme, and the duration of such allowances. The delegations have asked management to provide new proposals on these two points so that Council can approve the package as a whole at its October meeting, or in December at the latest.

Council unanimously approved a preliminary draft budget for 2007 and took note of projections for 2008-2012, with no new initiatives in the scientific programme. However, this exercise is continuing in parallel with the definition of a European strategy for particle physics, which I discussed in my previous message (see Bulletin No. 23-24/2006). If approved by Council in Lisbon on 14 July, this strategy will have financial implications and require new resources, which will have to be taken into account when the medium term plan is discussed later in the year.

The news from the Pension Fund is good. Firstly, following a strong performance of the fund in 2005, the latest actuarial review shows that in closed fund the funding ratio has recovered from 87% to 101%. Secondly, Council approved measures that will fully remove the internal debt to the fund.

The last main item of news from Council is the announcement of the start-up schedule for the LHC. A two-month run starting in November 2007, with beams colliding at an energy of 0.9 TeV, will allow the LHC accelerator and detector teams to run-in their equipment ready for a full 14 TeV run to start in spring 2008. This schedule ensures the fastest route to a high-energy physics run with substantial quantities of data, while optimising the commissioning schedules for the accelerator and the detectors. It foresees closing the LHC ring in August 2007 for equipment commissioning. The following run in 2007 will allow the accelerator and detector teams to test their equipment with low-energy beams. After a winter shutdown in which commissioning will continue without beam, the high-energy run will begin. Data collection will continue until sufficient data have been accumulated to allow the experimental collaborations to announce their first results. The LHC's machine advisory committee endorses the schedule, saying that experience indicates that it represents the most efficient way to get to high energy and high luminosity operation at the earliest date.