[Gravityloss]

no no no you're coming at this from the wrong angle.

To the politicians, it suffices to say that "It's bigger than what the Americans got".

The importance of CERN for European science and culture as a whole is an interesting subject, but I'd assume it's had very much positive effect.

[scorpion032]

The timing of the announcement, 4th July, surely suggests this could be what actually transpired.