2.6.1 Competence of the Disciplinary Board of Appeal

Under Art. 24(1) REE (cf. Art. 27(1) REE 1994), an appeal lies from decisions of the Examination Board and the Secretariat only on grounds of infringement of the Regulation or of any provision relating to its application. On the extent of the DBA's competence to review decisions of the Examination Board see D 1/92 (OJ 1993, 357), D 6/92 (OJ 1993, 361) and the further decisions in this chapter V.C.2.6.3 (for the EQE) and V.C.2.6.4 (for the pre-examination); concerning decisions of the Secretariat, see e.g. D 1/13 and D 5/18. The DBA has only very limited scope for reviewing the legal validity of implementing provisions drawn up by the Administrative Council or, in the case of delegation, by the relevant subsidiary body. In D 3/89 date: 1989-03-05 (OJ 1991, 257) the board stated in justification of its limited powers of scrutiny that the relevant bodies had discretionary powers in drawing up such provisions. As long as the legislative organ and subsidiary bodies had not misused their discretionary powers, the DBA could apply the provisions concerning examinations only to the case in point (see also D 1/81, OJ 1982, 258, D 5/89, OJ 1991, 218, D 14/96, D 11/99, D 7/05 date: 2006-07-17, OJ 2007, 378 and D 11/19).