During its 96th session on 23 June 2020, ECMWF’s Council unanimously elected Gen. Isp. G.A. Silvio Cau of Italy as its President and Dr Daniel Gellens of Belgium as its Vice-President.
The Council also noted expressions of interest from ten countries to host an additional ECMWF facility in a location compatible with all key European Union funding policies relevant to the Centre.
New Council President
The newly elected Council President, Gen. Isp. G.A. Silvio Cau, is the Head of the Italian National Meteorological Service, and Vice-President Dr Gellens is the Director-General a.i. of the Belgian Royal Meteorological Institute.
Gen. Isp. G.A. Silvio Cau
Gen. Isp. G.A. Cau was previously the Council’s Vice-President. He succeeds Juhani Damski, who was elected to the post of President in December 2019 but had to step down to take up the post of Permanent Secretary of the Finnish Ministry of the Environment.
Council President and Vice-President appointments are for a one-year term of office with the possibility of re-election no more than twice in succession.
ECMWF’s Council is made up of representatives from ECMWF's Member States and meets twice a year. Its task is to adopt the measures necessary to implement the ECMWF Convention.
‘Exciting juncture’
“I would like to thank Juhani for helping to steer the Centre through the COVID-19 crisis,” ECMWF Director-General Florence Rabier said. “I would also like to congratulate Silvio and Daniel on their election at an exciting juncture for ECMWF as we prepare to launch our next ten-year Strategy and to select an additional facility.”
In December 2019, ECMWF’s Council unanimously approved the establishment of an additional facility in a location compatible with all key European Union funding policies relevant to ECMWF.
During its June 2020 session, the Council heard that the following ten countries have indicated their interest in bidding to host that facility (in alphabetical order): Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK.