CERN LIBRARIES, GENEVA CERN/FC/439/Add. 21 September, 1960 Original: English

CM-P00084190

ORGANISATION EUROPĒENNE POUR LA RECHERCHE NUCLĒAIRE

CERN EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH

FINANCE COMMITTEE Thirty-fourth Meeting

Geneva - 4 October, 1960

PREAMBLE TO REMARKS ON THE 1961 BUDGET (by the Director-General of CERN)

9506/e Preamble to Remarks on the 1961 Budget

The Budget for 1961 and the estimates for 1962 are based on the approved programme of the CERN laboratory.

The speed at which this programme is being carried out, which determines the rate of expenditure and therefore the annual budgets, was first estimated in 1959. At this time the annual contribution ceiling was fixed by the CERN Council at 65 million Swiss francs for the years 1960, 1961 and 1962.

It is worth recalling that is was towards the end of , just before the meeting of the CERN Council, that the CERN Proton Synchrotron accelerated protons to full energy and it has only been during the course of 1960 that the full financial implications of the experimental programme of this machine have become apparent.

In making the predictions in 1959 for the rate of expenditure of the laboratory assumptions were made of the rate at which the CPS would be brought into service as a nuclear physics tool. Certain reserves were prudently put in the budget to cover the case that the experimental programme of the CPS would be in advance of the estimated programme. Part of this reserve was removed in fixing the ceiling of the three year period, part was eaten up by the steadily rising prices, and only by strict internal economies were some items, unfore• seen at the time of making the 1960 Budget, covered in the course of this year.

Furthermore no reserve was made for a general rise in European prices and in the cost of living, and in agreeing to the three year ceiling the late Director-General specifically exclu• ded additions to the programme of CERN and general rises in European prices.

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The budget estimating for 1961 and 1962 carried out recently in CERN and resulting in the present documents has shown two conflicting trends. Firstly the CPS has developed as a nuclear physics tool faster than the most optimistic esti• mate made in 1959, thus making evident some items originally unforeseen, and secondly the European prices and salaries have increased in 1959 and 1960 and will presumably continue to in• crease in 1961 and 1962.

CERN is therefore now facing the situation that the agreed programme, particularly as it concerns the CPS experimen• tation, can be carried out faster than was estimated a year ago, but that effectively less money is available in 1961 and 1962 to carry out this programme.

Undoubtedly the programme of the laboratory could be accelerated in view of the excellent progress with the CPS and from a scientific point of view there is every advantage in profiting from the favourable circumstances in which the labora• tory now finds itself. It will be recalled that the Brookhaven Proton Synchrotron accelerated particles to full energy at the end of and plans have now been made to begin the experi• mental programme towards the end of 1960. It would therefore be fair to say that the Brookhaven Laboratory is about one year behind CERN in starting but will easily catch up unless CERN makes every effort to pursue the experimental programme of the CPS in a vigorous and forthright manner.

However laudible the scientific reasons for an increase in the rate of carrying out the agreed programme of the CERN laboratory the financial consequences of any speed-up are clearly inconsistent with a fixed ceiling of contributions from the Member States of CERN in the three years 1960 to 1962.

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In presenting the 1961 budget and 1962 estimates, therefore, the Director-General wishes on the one hand to emphasize the present favourable situation of the CERN labo• ratory and the advantage to European High Energy Physics that could be derived from this situation, and on the other hand, following the spirit of the decision of the Council and the Member States in fixing the contribution level for the three years, he wishes to make it clear that the Budget 1961 and estimates 1962 presented in these documents do not make any special attempt to take advantage of these favourable circum• stances but assume that the programme, with some corrections, will be carried out at the rate originally planned in 1959.

If due allowance is made in the level of contribu• tions for the general rise in European prices in 1959 and 1960 (and later on in 1961) the agreed programme can be carried out at the originally planned rate by further strict economies inside CERN. It is on this assumption that the present budget is based.

Conversely, if no allowance is made for price increases then the rate of carrying out the programme planned in 1959 must be slowed down. From what has been mentioned above concerning the present favourable situation of the CERN laboratory in exploit• ing the CPS it will be obvious that, far from taking advantage of this situation, a slowed down programme will have exactly the opposite effect.

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