IS LEP beam-beam limited at its highest energy?

The operation of LEP at 45.6 GeV was limited by beam-beam effects and the vertical beam-beam parameter ξ_y never exceeded 0.045. At the highest energy of 94.5 GeV, the increased damping allows higher beam-beam parameters ξ_y. Values above 0.07 in the vertical plane averaged over four experiments have been obtained frequently with peak values up to 0.075 in a single experiment. Although the maximum intensity in LEP is presently limited by technical considerations, some observations indicate that the beam-beam limit is close and the question of the maximum possible values can be raised. These observations are shown in this paper and possible consequences are presented. The optimum operation of LEP in the neighbourhood of the beam-beam limit is discussed