In order to facilitate reading and understanding of the following texts, we here list and explain a few technical terms.  We have no pretension to be rigorous in a legal sense.  For further information, reference should be made to the original documents.

The CERN Staff Association
is the intermediary between the Director-General and the personnel on a collective basis.  It is entitled to be represented in the various advisory bodies provided for in the Staff Rules and Regulations (Staff Rules VII.1).  The Staff Association admits different categories of members such as staff members and fellows, associates and users (Art.II.1.1 of the Statutes of the Association).  The GAC-EPA is an integral part of the Staff Association (see below)

The Groupement des Anciens du CERN — ESO Pensioners' Association (GAC-EPA)
to which we will refer below by its acronym GAC-EPA in order to avoid confusion with the Staff Association, has been set up in the framework of the Staff Association (Art.I.1.3(h) of the Statutes of the Staff Association).  It comprises former staff members, now beneficiaries of the Pension Fund, and other beneficiaries of this Fund (Art.4 of the GAC-EPA Statutes).  In the Staff Council, the supreme representative organ of the personnel within the Staff Association), GAC-EPA is represented by 9 delegates elected by its members (Art.15 of the Statutes of GAC-EPA; Art.V.1.1 of the Statutes of the Staff Association).  Organisation and coordination of GAC-EPA activities are carried out by an elected Committee (Art.11 of the GAC-EPA Statutes).  The delegates to the Staff Council are members of the GAC-EPA Committee (Art.15 of the GAC-EPA Statutes).

The Standing Concertation Committee (SCC; French CCP)
is composed of ten members of the personnel, half of them nominated by the Director-General, the other half by the Staff Association.  The SCC is mandated to examine general questions concerning the personnel and to aim at a common position (Staff Rules and Regulationy Art.VII.1.07; R VII.1.01).  The GAC-EPA is represented in two sub-groups of the SCC:  the CERN Health Insurance Supervisory Board (CHISB) and the Working Group on Pension Guarantees.

The rules of the Pension Fund
are approved by the CERN Council.  The financial contributions of the Organisation as well as the benefits and contributions of the members of the personnel are fixed by the CERN Council following the proposal of the Director-General after discussion in the SCC and consultation with the Governing Board of the Pension Fund (Staff Rules, Chapter V).  The Governing Board of the Pension Fund, charged, among other duties, to apply the pensions policy laid down by the CERN Council and to supervise and monitor the management of the Fund, consists of 10 members appointed or elected according to Art.I 2.05 of the Statutes of the Fund as well as an observer who is a beneficiary of the Fund, appointed by the Governing Board of the Fund in agreement with the Staff Association.  Each member and observer has an alternate appointed by the same procedure.  The two observers (principal and alternate) are ex-officio members of the GAC-EPA Committee.

The Rules of the CERN Health Insurance Scheme (CHIS)
are adopted by the Director-General on the basis of the levels of contributions and benefits fixed by the CERN Council (Rules of the CERN Health Insurance Scheme I.1.01).  The company UNIQA Assurances SA is the Administrator of CHIS (AS Division: Administrative Prodedures Manual).  The CERN Health Insurance Supervisory Board (CHISB) is responsible to the SCC for the general supervision of CHIS with a view to ensure the objectives of the Scheme, including its long-term financial balance, in the interest of the members of the Scheme and of the Organisation (CERN Health Insurance Rules XI 1.01).GAC is represented in CHISB by two delegates and one alternate, who are ex-officio members of the GAC-EPA Committee.

The Long-Term Care Insurance (LTC)
introduced in January 2000, is an integral part of CHIS.  Any member of CHIS with normal coverage is entitled to benefit from the long-term care allocations.  The person must be recognised as disabled by a Medico-Social Panel, which will estimate the level of disability in accomplishing certain basic tasks in daily life [GAC Bulletin No 23 (June 2001)].

The TRipartite Employment conditions Forum (TREF)
is a consultative committee in which the CERN Council, the administration and the personnel are represented.  It is responsible for preparing Council decisions on the salary adjustment procedure, the Staff Rules and Regulations, the CERN career structure, the Pension Fund, the Health Insurance Scheme etc.