Iceland a member of ECMWF
On 9 March 2011, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, Minister for the Environment of Iceland, and Dominique Marbouty, Director General of ECMWF, signed the "Agreement between the Government of Iceland and ECMWF on the accession of Iceland to the ECMWF Convention and related terms and conditions" at The Cultural House in Reykjavík.
Árni Snorrason, Director General of the Icelandic Meteorological Office, attended the ceremony, as well as various guests.
The original Convention restricted ECMWF’s membership to the founding Member States. Amendments to the Convention entered into force on 6 June 2010, allowing more States to accede to the Convention. Iceland will become ECMWF’s nineteenth Member State. The agreement will enter into force on the first day of the second month following the deposit of its instrument of accession.
Svandís Svavarsdóttir: “It is an honour for me to sign the accession agreement with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, one of the world’s leading centres in numerical weather prediction. This is a major milestone for Iceland in establishing closer links to European centres of excellence, such as ECMWF. I would like to express my appreciation of the ECMWF Council voting unanimously in favour of Iceland’s accession to the ECMWF Convention on 24 February 2011."
Árni Snorrason: “Since Iceland became a Co-operating State in December 1980, the Icelandic Meteorological Office has been able to make good use of ECMWF’s products, in particular to improve our forecasts. Above all, the Centre’s forecasts of extreme weather events are vital to enable us to prepare for and respond to those events. I am looking forward to even closer collaboration with our colleagues at ECMWF."
Dominique Marbouty: “I am pleased that Iceland will be the first new Member State under the amended Convention. As a full Member State, Iceland will acquire full voting rights at the ECMWF Council from the date of entry into force of the agreement. A portion of the Centre’s computer and archive resources will be allocated to Iceland for its own use.”
At the Cultural House in Reykjavík, 9th March 2011. Photo: Guðmundur Hörður Guðmundsson.
