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As regards, secondly, the assessment of the opportunity lost, the Court of First Instance, after making the finding, in paragraphs 96 and 97 of the judgment under appeal, that the applications submitted by Mrs Girardot satisfied the requisite conditions to be considered, examined, in paragraphs 98 to 122 of that judgment, whether the chance of which she had been deprived could be regarded as a certainty, in the sense that Mrs Girardot would have had, if not every chance of obtaining one of the posts in question, at least a strong chance of obtaining one. Having established, in paragraphs 102 to 107 of that judgment, that Mrs Girardot was the only candidate for each of the posts at that stage of the procedure, that she could claim significant prior experience within the Commission, that her services were held in esteem and that her qualifications and the specification of the posts were sufficiently matched, the Court of First Instance ruled as follows in paragraphs 115 to 117 of that judgment: ‘115 Having regard to the foregoing facts, it cannot be held that, on conclusion of the first stage of the procedure for the filling of vacant posts laid down by Article 29(1) of the Staff Regulations, the Commission, which might have preferred to have a wider choice …, would certainly have accepted one of Mrs Girardot’s applications and, consequently, that she had every chance of being awarded a temporary staff contract within the meaning of Article 2(d) of the Conditions of employment and of obtaining the financial advantages attaching to its performance. It may none the less be considered that Mrs Girardot had a strong chance in that regard, of which she was deprived because of the rejection of her applications by the Commission, which, on the evidence, did not examine them. 116 During the stage of the procedure for the filling of vacant posts laid down by Article 29(1)(b) of the Staff Regulations, another candidate, also a temporary staff member, expressed to the Commission his interest in each of the eight posts in which Mrs Girardot had also expressed her interest … . The Commission could accept one or other of those candidates. However, the Commission was also at liberty not to accept any of the competing applications, after having examined them, and to proceed to the stage of the procedure laid down by Article 29(1)(c) of the Staff Regulations … . The Commission might finally, while respecting the principles stated in the case-law, not pursue that procedure … . Those factors are such as to reduce the chance which Mrs Girardot had that her application to occupy one of the posts in question would be successful. 117 However, if Mrs Girardot had been entitled to take part in a fresh procedure for the filling of vacant posts, held after annulment of the decisions rejecting her applications …, she might profitably have expressed her interest in other posts of the same kind and, having regard to, inter alia, the factors stated in paragraphs 103 to 106 above, might have been successful in one of them, a point which the Commission does not dispute. That factor is such as to increase the chance which Mrs Girardot had that she would succeed in her application to obtain, as a temporary staff member within the meaning of Article 2(d) of the Conditions of employment, a permanent post paid from research and investment appropriations, corresponding to Category A, requiring scientific qualifications and vacant within the Joint Research Centre in the Commission’s “Research” DG or in its “Information Society” DG.’