The European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) announced this Friday that it intends to end the cooperation agreements with Russia and Belarus in 2024, the year in which they expire, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The intention was expressed by the CERN Council (acronym by which the laboratory is known) at a meeting held this Thursday.
CERN cooperation agreement with Russia expires in December 2024 and that of Belarus in June of the same yearsays the laboratory in a statement released this Friday.
The CERN Council, the highest body of the laboratory where 23 member states, including Portugal, are based, also decided to review future cooperation with the Central Institute for Nuclear Research, in Dubna, Russia, before January 2025, the date on which it expires. the current collaboration agreement between both entities.
As a general rule, CERN cooperation agreements are valid for five years and are tacitly renewed for the same period unless terminated by one of the parties at least six months before the renewal date.
On Thursday, the CERN Council reiterated its condemnation of the “illegal military invasion” of Ukraine (Associate Member of CERN) by Russia, with the support of Belarus, which “resulted in a widespread humanitarian crisis and significant loss of life”.
The member states of CERN recall that “the fundamental values” of the European Organization for Nuclear Research/CERN, created in the 1950s, “have always been based on Cross-border scientific collaboration as an engine for peaceand they stress that “aggression from one country to another contradicts these values.”
In March, in response to the war in Ukraine, which has been going on for about four months, CERN suspended its researchers’ participation in scientific committees of Russian and Belarusian institutions and Russia’s observer status, as well as new collaborations with the country and its institutions.
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the European laboratory is home to the world’s largest particle accelerator.
Source: Observadora
