Translation of "Question décisive " (French → English) :

The critical issue was whether making further investment by releasing funds from reserves would make commercial sense or be tantamount to putting ‘good money after bad’.

It would have to be determined on a case-by-case basis, depending in particular on the issue covered by the choice-of-court agreement, whether the agreement would have to be concluded between all parties concerned by the succession or whether some of them could agree to bring a specific issue before the chosen court in a situation where the decision by that court on that issue would not affect the rights of the other parties to the succession.

[5] There exists also another body, the Statistical Programme Committee (composed of the Directors-General of the statistical institutes of the Member States), which assists the Commission in the general coordination of the multi-annual statistical programmes and is consulted extensively by the Commission on a wide range of issues (Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom of 19 June 1989, establishing a Committee on the Statistical Programmes of the European Communities - OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47).

The US delegation explained that these constraints do not preclude representatives advising the DOT decision-maker in an active proceeding from discussing with representatives of the Commission such matters as (1) the state of competition in any markets based upon non-confidential data; (2) the impact of existing alliances or other cooperative ventures and the results of previously imposed conditions or other limitations to address competition issues; (3) general approaches to competition analysis or methodology; (4) past cases, including records and decisions; (5) substantive law, policies, and procedures applicable to any cases; (6) issues that might ...[+++]be raised by potential cases that have not been formally initiated, so long as DOT representatives do not ‘prejudge’ the facts or results of such cases; and (7) in active proceedings, what issues have already been raised by the parties and what non-confidential evidence has been provided for the record, again up to the point of potential ‘prejudgment’ of the facts and outcome.

The US delegation explained that these constraints do not preclude representatives advising the DOT decision-maker in an active proceeding from discussing with representatives of the Commission such matters as (1) the state of competition in any markets based upon non-confidential data; (2) the impact of existing alliances or other cooperative ventures and the results of previously imposed conditions or other limitations to address competition issues; (3) general approaches to competition analysis or methodology; (4) past cases, including records and decisions; (5) substantive law, policies, and procedures applicable to any cases; (6) issues that might ...[+++]be raised by potential cases that have not been formally initiated, so long as DOT representatives do not ‘prejudge’ the facts or results of such cases; and (7) in active proceedings, what issues have already been raised by the parties and what non-confidential evidence has been provided for the record, again up to the point of potential ‘prejudgment’ of the facts and outcome.

Elsewhere, "functional links " between projects in a programme are a deciding issue and the SEA Directive may provide relevant guidance in the future.