Order of the President of the General Court of 16 October 2013 — Spain v Commission

(Case T-461/13 R)

‛Application for interim measures — State aid — Decision declaring aid to be incompatible with the internal market and ordering its recovery and the cancellation of any outstanding payments — Application for suspension of operation — Failure to show a prima facie case and urgency’

1. Application for interim measures — Suspension of operation of a measure — Interim measures — Conditions for granting — Prima facie case — Urgency — Serious and irreparable damage — Cumulative nature — Balancing of all the interests involved — Discretion of the court hearing the application for interim relief (Arts 256(1) TFEU, 278 TFEU and 279 TFEU; Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 104(2)) (see paras 13-15)

2. Application for interim measures — Suspension of operation of a measure — Conditions for granting — Prima facie case — Examination prima facie of the pleas in law put forward in support of the main action — Action against a decision of the Commission declaring aid incompatible with the internal market and ordering its recovery — Plea relating to the existence of exceptional circumstances precluding the recovery of aid — Plea not prima facie lacking in foundation (Art. 278 TFEU; Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 104(2)) (see paras 17, 24, 25)

3. Application for interim measures — Community law — Application — Formal requirements — Pleas establishing a prima facie case for the measures applied for (Arts 278 TFEU and 279 TFEU; Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 104(2) and (3)) (see para. 20)

4. Application for interim measures — Suspension of operation of a measure — Conditions for granting — Urgency — Serious and irreparable damage — Burden of proof — Commission decision ordering recovery of State aid — Recovery likely to compromise the achievement of State tasks and provoke a disturbance of public order in a Member State — Included — No concrete and precise indications, supported by detailed documentary evidence — No urgency (Art. 278 TFEU; Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 104(2)) (see paras 32, 34-39, 42, 49)

5. Application for interim measures — Suspension of operation of a measure — Interim measures — Conditions for granting — Serious and irreparable damage — Harm that can be pleaded by a Member State (Arts 278 TFEU and 279 TFEU) (see para. 33)

6. Application for interim measures — Suspension of operation of a measure — Conditions for granting — Urgency — Commission decision ordering recovery of State aid — Decision addressed to the Member State and not to the beneficiary — Account taken of national implementing measures — Non-binding measures — No prima facie case or urgency (Arts 278 TFEU, and 288, fourth para., TFEU; Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 104(2)) (see paras 43, 44, 50)

7. Application for interim measures — Suspension of operation of a measure — Conditions for granting — Urgency — Serious and irreparable damage — Decision ordering recovery of State aid — Whether there exists any means of obtaining legal redress before the national court against national implementing measures — Power of the EU judicature to take such means of redress into consideration when assessing whether the application for interim measures is well founded — Not irreparable (Art. 278 TFEU; Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 104(2)) (see paras 45-48)

Re:

APPLICATION for suspension of operation of Commission Decision C(2013) 3204 final of 19 June 2013 on State aid SA.28599 (C 23/2010) (ex NN 36/010, ex CP 163/2009) implemented by the Kingdom of Spain for the deployment of digital terrestrial television in remote and less-urbanised areas (other than Castilla-La Mancha).

Operative part

1. The application for interim measures is dismissed.