Romania became on Sunday the 22nd member of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), following its accession to the founding Convention of the organization. UNESCO, the depositary of this convention, has officially notified the CERN in connection with this accession, which crowns a 25-year collaboration, the institution informs on Monday on its website.
“The accession of Romania to full CERN membership underlines the importance of European research collaboration in the quest to understand nature at its most fundamental level,” said Professor Sijbrand de Jong, President of the CERN Council.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE) welcomed on Monday, through a press release, Romania’s accession to CERN membership, calling it an essential step for the development of scientific research in Romania.
“This new outlook of interaction with the scientific environment of prestige will contribute in a significant manner to the stimulation and strengthening of the involvement of Romanian research institutions in the great experiments and scientific programmes carried out by CERN, in view of boosting the research capability and the national scientific visibility in this domain.”
“The consolidation of the technological potential and of the competitiveness of the national economic and business environment, as well as the boosting of the educational level and of the dissemination of research results in society will also benefit from this accession.”
“Romanian excellence in the research domain, known and already appreciated by CERN, will have new opportunities to obtain recognition at international level,” the MAE communique reads.
“The Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research was established in 1954, and it is the biggest research centre in the physics of elementary particles,” added MAE.
Bilateral contacts began back in 1991, when a scientific and technical cooperation agreement was signed between CERN and the Government of Romania, establishing the legal framework for later developments.
Romania submitted its formal application to join the organisation in April 2008. The agreement granting Romania the status of candidate for accession came into force on November 12, 2010.
Romania’s scientific community at CERN has grown over the years and currently numbers around a hundred visiting scientists. Romania has particularly strong presence in the LHC experiments ATLAS, ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) and LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty), according to the CERN website.
CERN is the world’s most important particle physics laboratory. It is based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its full member states are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania, the UK, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. Cyprus and Serbia are associate member in the pre-stage to membership of CERN. Pakistan and Turkey are associate members. The US, the Russian Federation, India, Japan, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research Russia (JINR), UNESCO and the European Union are CERN observers.
