"The Commission did not breach theprinciple of equal treatment when it decided to treat uniformly installations that are in different situations, due to the use of different fuels, when determining the benchmarks, " the court ruling said on Thursday.
This principle has gained fame (and an equal measure of notoriety) in the last few years and is now a guiding principle in environmental policy and decision making with the United Nations and many countries around the world.
Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis said ministers had "abandoned the fundamental principle" of making academic and vocational qualifications of equal value.