In coming to this conclusion the court has supported the view of the Council when, on a number of occasions in the past, it has decided not to give the Commission a mandate to negotiate an USA – EU open skies agreement. As the House will know, Ireland has consistently opposed giving such a mandate. On the other hand, it was probably not unexpected, especially in the light of the opinion issued by the Advocate General last January, that the court would find that countries had breached EU law in relation to provisions in their agreements with the USA dealing with fares, computerised reservation systems and nationality restrictions on airline ownership.