8. Notes that the discretionary power conferred by the Treaties upon the Commission in dealing with the infringement process must respect the rule of law, the requirement of transparency and openness and the principle of proportionality and must never endanger the very first aim of that power, which is to guarantee timely and correct application of Union law; reiterates that ‘absolute discretion coupled with an absolute lack of transparency is fundamentally contrary to the rule of law’ ;

8. Notes that the discretionary power conferred by the Treaties upon the Commission in dealing with the infringement process must respect the rule of law, the requirement of transparency and openness and the principle of proportionality and must never endanger the very first aim of that power, which is to guarantee timely and correct application of Union law; reiterates that ‘absolute discretion coupled with an absolute lack of transparency is fundamentally contrary to the rule of law’;

The fact that any matter within the scope of the Directive can be referred to a dispute resolution authority and that the decisions of the authority will be binding, particularly given that the criteria to be applied in arbitrating on such disputes are not stated nor is it made clear that a Member State could exercise its discretion in establishing such criteria – in the case, for example, where a dispute arises from a conflict between airline users’ short term perspective and the longer term development needs of an airport what criteria will apply in deciding the dispute?

The national court also asked whether the deposit of waste in a disused mine necessarily constitutes a disposal operation for the purposes of the Community directive on waste, or whether such deposits must be assessed on a case-by-case basis and, if so, what criteria should be used to make the assessment.

a manifest error of assessment made by the Commission in considering "that the adjustments made to the restructuring plan in June 1997, which, on its own admission, reduced the risks inherent in that plan and further increased the profitability of the undertaking, had no impact on the calculation of the minimum rate and the internal rate and, accordingly, on the appraisal of whether IRI's investment satisfied the private investor's test".

Knowledge of English and French Languages 15 Since the point rating system is only applied to members of the Independent and Business Classes of immigrants, neither the Personal Suitability criterion nor any of the other criteria in the point rating system are applied to sponsored family members.