Since 1955, CERN has its own Pension Fund that is shared with ESO (European Southern Observatory, located in Garching, Germany and La Silla, Chile). The goal of the Pension Fund is to insure its members, its beneficiaries as well as the members of their families against the consequences of disability, old age and death.
It is a defined-benefit Fund, and hence it is CERN and ESO’s responsibility to ensure that benefits (pensions) can be paid at any moment to its beneficiaries, until the death of the last survivor. Employed members of the personnel of the Organisations, as well as these Organisations, contribute monthly to the PF and each member acquires accordingly a right for pension that depends on the conditions defined in her/his work contract.
The CERN-ESO Pension Fund has about 3700 members and 3600 beneficiaries.
The Pension Fund is managed by a CERN unit (PF), that has the rank of a department and whose head is the Fund’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). It is supervised by a Governing Board (PFGB) that reports to the Finance committees and the Councils of the Organisations. The PFGB is composed by 10 members representing the Councils of the Organisations, their staff associations and their pensioners. It is chaired by one of the delegates to the Councils and its members can only serve for 2 mandates of 3 years.
Useful links:
- Pension Fund
- Pension Fund Governing Board (PFGB)
- ESO web site
- Key information guide for beneficiaries
- Postpone the payment of pensions from the 7th to the 25th of the month? Do you agree?
Dear GAC-EPA members,
As you will have read in the letter that you received from the Fund at the beginning of June, the Pension Fund wishes to change the date on which pensions are paid from the 7th to the 25th of the month from the beginning of 2026.
To better understand the rationale for this change, we asked the Pension Fund for an explanation.
The main reason for the proposed change is that sometimes bereaved families have to arrange a reimbursement of a pension that has been unduly paid; this often happens when a death occurs at the end of the month – for example: a beneficiary dies on 25 July, the July pension has been paid, however, the August pension is also very likely to be paid if the Fund has not been informed prior to instructing the payment; in this case, the Fund will have to ask the relatives to arrange a reimbursement of the August pension, which is a delicate process for the Pension Fund’s Benefits Service and difficult for the bereaved family. By paying the pension at the end of the month, this problem should arise much less frequently; the rule is that for any death during the month (from the 1st to the last day of the month), the pension is due in full for that month.
Avoiding certain bereaved families having to pay back a large sum of money in the middle of the night is a laudable intention; however, the GAC-EPA Committee is concerned about the consequences of this change for the most vulnerable beneficiaries.
The position of the GAC-EPA Committee, which we have presented to the Pension Fund Governing Board and its Benefits Service Team, is clear: we ask the Fund to abandon this change!
Do you agree with us?
Give us your opinion by adding a comment on our article; Go to the bottom of the page, fill in the ‘Leave a Reply’ box.
- 14 October: Annual Information Meeting of the Pension Fund
We strongly encourage all pensioners who are able to do so to attend the Pension Fund’s annual information meeting on 14 October 2025.
Further information is available at: https://home.cern/news/official-news/cern/14-october-annual-information-meeting-pension-fund
- Pension fund: beneficiary questionnaire
Dear GAC-EPA members,
The CERN Pension Fund recently sent you a short questionnaire by e-mail. They have asked us to pass on this information; here is the Fund’s message:
‘This survey is designed to help us to get to know you better and improve how we communicate with you.
Your input will guide us in making our content and services clearer, more relevant, and better suited to your needs.
We rely on your feedback to keep improving.
This is your chance to tell us what’s working well and where we could do better.
👉 You’ll find the questionnaire in your inbox or can access it directly by clicking here.
Please feel free to share this link with other members or beneficiaries.
Thank you very much for your participation and valuable input.
The CERN Pension Fund‘
- Recording of Staff Association seminar on the Pension Fund
The recording of the Staff Association seminar of June 24th on the Pension Fund can be found at https://cds.cern.ch/record/2936600
The slides are also available following this link.
- Presentation and recording – Annual Information Meeting of the Pension Fund on 17/10/2024
For your information, please note that the Pension Fund’s Annual Information Meeting (AIM), hosted by Florin-Dorian Buzatu, PFGB Chair and Doug Heron, Pension Fund CEO, was held at CERN on Thursday 17 October 2024.
The recording and presentation are now available on the following indico page if you wish to view them.
2024 Pension Fund – Annual Information Meeting
You can also read the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2023 by using this link.
- Video of the Annual Information Meeting of the Pension Fund
Dear Members
We would like to inform you, in case you were unable to attend the Annual Information Meeting of the Pension Fund in person or via webcast, that a video of the meeting is available on the public indico page https://indico.cern.ch/event/1327056/ .
You will also find a copy of the slides presented by the Fund’s Chief Executive Officer, Doug Heron.
The presentation was held in English. If you choose the “Video preview”, you will find a “CC” button at the top right of the screen that allows you to display subtitles in French or English.
We hope you will enjoy listening to this very interesting and informative presentation.