Embargoed 27-09-13
(need to agree time)
On 27 September Mr Vladan Kocic, Director of the Republic Hydrometeorological
Service of Serbia (RHMSS), and Professor Alan Thorpe, Director-General of the
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) will sign the
“Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Serbia and
ECMWF on the accession of the Republic of Serbia to the ECMWF
Convention” in Belgrade. The agreement will enter in force after it has been ratified by the Serbian Parliament. Serbia will then officially join the other 20
Member States governing the European Weather Centre and setting its strategic direction.
Weather prediction capability is fully acknowledged to have repercussions on both economic and societal activities and by working with ECMWF, RHMSS contributes to the strengthening of resilience and capacity of the country.
Commenting on the accession and its benefits to Serbia’s economy and its citizens,
Vladan Kocic said: “It is an honour for me to sign the accession agreement with
ECMWF, the world’s leading centre in global medium-range weather prediction. I would like to express my appreciation to the Centre’s Council for the unanimous decision on the accession of the Republic of Serbia to the ECMWF Convention and also to thank the Serbian Government for providing us the necessary support and for

recognizing the significance of the accession for the further growth and development of RHMSS.
The role of RHMSS in disaster risk reduction becomes all the more important taking into consideration historical data showing that the frequency and intensity of meteorological and hydrological disasters in Serbia are increasing. The share of disasters of hydrometeorological origin in the total number of catastrophes in Serbia is similar to that on a regional and global scale (around 90%).The RHMSS will use the Centre’s products in particular for early warnings of extreme weather events, such as storms, heavy precipitation and heat waves. The Centre’s products are vital to enable us to prepare for and respond to those events and thereby saving lives and reducing economic damages.”
Professor Thorpe said: “ I am extremely pleased that following today’s signature, the
Republic of Serbia will soon become a Member State. Serbia will then be a full voting member of the ECMWF Council. A portion of the Centre’s supercomputer time and archive resources will be allocated to the Republic of Serbia for its own use. Public
Services in Serbia will have access to all ECMWF products and tools. I am particularly looking forward to the collaboration with our colleagues in Serbia for the mutual benefit of both the RHMSS and ECMWF.”
Notes to Editors
1. ECMWF is an intergovernmental organisation supported by 34 States (of which 20 are
Member States and 14 are Co-operating States. ECMWF was established in 1975 in recognition of the need to pool the scientific and technical resources of Europe’s meteorological services and institutions for the production of medium-range weather forecasts. Medium-range refers to time periods of 3 to 10 days ahead; however, increasingly, extended forecasts are being produced for monthly to seasonal timescales.
2. Today, ECMWF produces global numerical predictions of the weather from the current time up to a year ahead with varying degrees of detail; The Centre also produces predictions of atmospheric composition such as greenhouse gases, air pollutants, aerosols, fire smoke, and volcanic ash. Using its coupled ocean-atmosphere models
ECMWF produces world-leading ocean wave forecasts. As part of its capability to analyse accurately the state of the atmosphere and oceans, ECMWF is also a worldleader in climate monitoring using re-analyses of past observations using state-of-the-art modelling and assimilation techniques. As a consequence ECMWF has the largest meteorological data archive in the world.

3. ECMWF is both a research institute and a 24/7 operational service producing and disseminating numerical weather prediction and other data to a wide range of users.
These data are fully available to the national meteorological services in pursuit of their official duties as a consequence of the national membership of ECMWF. The Centre also has a catalogue of these forecast data that can be purchased by worldwide businesses and other commercial customers etc. The supercomputer facility (and associated data archive) at ECMWF is one of the largest of its type in Europe and Member States have access to 25% of this facility for their own use (this constitutes another major benefit to
European countries of ECMWF’s existence).
4. Member States are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom.
Cooperating States are: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, the Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro,
Morocco, Romania, Slovakia. Serbia is currently a cooperating state until the accession agreement comes into force.
Contacts for media:
RHMSS, Serbia
 Mikša Jovanović, +381 11 3050851
ECMWF, UK
 Chantal Dunikowski, +44 1189499155
 Hilda Carr, +44 1189499101