Some 15 months ago, the French government asked the European Court of Justice for an interpretation of the directive.
Also caught by the 13-week rule were members of the 30,000-strong BroadcasTheatretertainment Cinematographic and Theatre Union (BECTU), which became the first individual trade union ever to take the government to the European Court to challenge Britain's interpretation of the directive.
While the Court's ruling on the interpretation of the Directive is noteworthy, the more controversial matter involves the second set of questions on which this case note will mainly focus.
The ECJ, on the other hand, limited itself to an interpretation of the Directive consistent with the approach by the Advocate General, but without any reference to the Marleasing reasoning.
Divergent interpretations on the "compatibility of a purpose" and on what is "impossible or disproportionate effort" reflect uncertainties about the best interpretation of the Directive and may cause confusion.
The case against Iceland was bought by the Surveillance Authority of the European Free Trade Association and revolved around interpretation of a European Union directive requiring that deposits in European banks be covered equally by deposit guarantee systems.
Some Irish church officials have said the problem has been deepened by confusion over the interpretation of a 2001 directive by Benedict, then a cardinal, reiterating a strict requirement for secrecy in handling abuse cases.
In making its decision, the ECJ applied a strict interpretation of EU Directive 2001/18 (Directive) — the EU regulation for the deliberative release into the environment of a GMO — and heavily relied on its understanding of the objectives of that Directive, as set forth in the EU Parliament's stated reasons for enacting it (the "whereas" or recital statements preceding the Directive).
Concerning the benefit side of renewable electricity promotion, the Muñoz et al. (2007) paper builds on an interpretation of the EU Renewables Directive that provides plenty of room for national priorities and that therefore essentially implies that harmonized support premiums per se are of little value.
However, Jameson, in his interpretation of the Prime Directive, also supplied the warring tribes with an equal number of weapons.
