Geneva, 25 June 1993.

Hubert Curien elected President of CERN Council

The CERN Council, where the representatives of the 17 Member States of the Organization* decide on CERN's scientific programmes and financial resources, held its 97th Session on June 25 under the chairmanship of Sir William Mitchell (United Kingdom).

The Council delegates elected Hubert Curien, until recently French Minister of Research, as President of CERN Council initially for a period of 1 year as of 1 January 1994. He will take over from Sir William Mitchell, who has held the office for three years. Mr Curien, himself a physicist, was Professor at Paris University and l'Ecole Normale Supérieure. He was Minister responsible for Research in France for two periods, 1984-6 and 1988-93. He made frequent visits to CERN and has maintained a personal interest in the research goals of the Laboratory. Hubert Curien has also made an important contribution to other European scientific organizations having been President of the Councils of the European Space Agency (ESA) the European Science Foundation and Eureka. (See attached Curriculum Vitae)

Accepting his election as a great honour Hubert Curien expressed his great confidence in CERN, which he considers as the reference point for European scientific organizations stressing that CERN has achieved major scientific results and shown great wisdom and vision in its investments and the choice of its staff.

Accession of the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic

The former Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, which had been a Member State of CERN as from 1 January 1992, ceased to exist on 31 December 1992. Following applications for membership from both new States, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, Council delegates voted unanimously to accept the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic as Member States of CERN as from 1 July 1993.

All present at the meeting stood to applaud the two new delegations as they took their places in the Council Chamber. The Czech delegation was led by Mr. Vratislav Ludvik, Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade. Mr. Jan Kubis, Ambassador to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, was head of the Slovak delegation. A warm welcome was extended to the representatives of the new Member States by the President of Council and the Director-General, a welcome which was repeated in statements by several delegations.

The LHC Project will be presented to Council in December

Prof Carlo Rubbia, Director General of CERN, presented the planned scientific activities and budget estimates for the years 1994-1997. The Council approved as a firm estimate the amount of 921.4 MCHF as a basis for the 1994 budget, while the planning for the further years depends on the strategy to be decided for the future CERN accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC Project will be jointly presented by Prof. Rubbia and his successor, Prof Christopher Llewellyn Smith at a special meeting during the December session of Council. In the form of a comprehensive document to be studied by the Member States, full detail will then be given on the design, cost estimate and construction schedule of both the machine and its detectors, as well as on the long term strategic lines along which this project will be embedded in the overall CERN policy, with a complete assessment of its impact on CERN programmes.

Strengthened Cooperation with the European Community and with Russia in the field of scientific research and development

The Director-General informed the Committee of Council of recent developments in the field of CERN's scientific cooperation:

• following a decision of the EC Council of Ministers to promote a pan-European synergy in the field of research and technological development, the European Community has engaged in active discussions with CERN and other European scientific organizations with a view to concluding with them umbrella-type cooperation agreements. The Director-General reported on preliminary bilateral EC-CERN discussions on this matter and the Committee of Council gave him the mandate to negotiate the conclusion of a EC-CERN Cooperation Agreement aiming at consolidating the existing mutually beneficial relations and establishing well integrated joint projects;
• in his report the President of Council covered the future scientific and technical cooperation with the Federation of Russia. The Government of the Russian Federation is showing a keen interest for continuing and strengthening the long-standing cooperation with CERN in the field of high energy physics. An updating of the existing Agreement is considered necessary and the Director-General is mandated to conduct negotiations to this effect.

The special representative of Minister B. Saltykov, Minister of Science of the Russian Federation, Prof. A. Skrinsky, confirmed to Council the intentions of his Goeernment in this respect, stating: "The three years foreseen for the duration of the new CERN-Russia Cooperation Agreement, now in preparation, should constitute a reasonable transitional period in further developing our long-standing relations, with the final goal of the Russian Federation's full CERN Membership." On the subject of the LHC he added: "The Russian research institutes with assistance of high class domain of our industry, have the firm intention to make a major contribution to the construction and utilization of this new facility."

Elections

Mr Jan Bezemer (Netherlands) was elected Vice-president of Council for a period of one year.

The Director-General Designate forms his team for 1994

The President of Council announced the management structure of the Organization as from 1 January 1994 when Prof. Llewellyn Smith, Director-General Designate, starts his five year mandate.

Directors:

• Dr Helmut Weber will continue as Director of Administration for a period of 1 year.
• Dr Pierre Darriulat and Prof Walter Hoogland will continue as Directors of Research until 30 June 1994, after which Prof Lorenzo Foa takes over as Director of Research for three years.
• Dr Horst Wenninger was appointed Research / Technical Director for three years as from 1 January 1994.
• Dr Kurt HŸbner was appointed Director of Accelerators for three years as from 1 January 1994.
• Dr Lyndon Evans was appointed Associate Director for Future Accelerators for three years as from 1 January 1994.

Division Leaders:

Dr Daniel Simon and Dr Karl-Heinz Kissler was appointed as leaders of the Proton Synchroton (PS) Division and the SPS/LEP (SL) Division respectively as of 1 January 1994. (Curriculum vitae are available at the CERN Press Office)

1. CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Israel, the Russian Federation, Turkey, Yugoslavia (status suspended after UN embargo, June 1992), the European Commission and Unesco have observer status.