Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Applications for interim measures — Suspension of operation of a measure — Interim measures — Conditions for granting — Prima facie case — Serious and irreparable harm — Balancing of all the interests involved — Discretion of the judge hearing the application for interim measures — (Arts 242 EC and 243 EC; Rules of Procedure of the Court, Art. 83(2); Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 104(2))

2. Applications for interim measures — Suspension of operation of a measure — Suspension of the obligation to provide a bank guarantee as a condition for non-enforcement of the right to immediate payment of a fine — Conditions for granting — Exceptional circumstances — Judge's discretion as to whether to balance the interests — Applicant undertaking in liquidation — Risk of irreversible harm to the Community's interests — (Art. 242 EC)

3. Appeal — Grounds of appeal — Incorrect assessment of the facts — Inadmissible — Application in the case of an appeal against an interlocutory order — Not possible, unless the clear sense of the evidence has been distorted, to challenge the balancing of interests — (Art. 225 EC; Statute of the Court of Justice, Arts 57 and 58)

Summary

1. The judge hearing an application for interim relief may order suspension of operation of an act, or other interim measures, if it is established that such an order is justified, prima facie, in fact and in law and that it is urgent in so far as, in order to avoid serious and irreparable harm to the applicant's interests, it must be made and produce its effects before a decision is reached in the main action. Where appropriate, the judge hearing such an application must also weigh up the interests involved.

In the context of the overall examination that the judge must undertake, he enjoys a broad discretion and is free to determine, having regard to the specific circumstances of the case, the manner and order in which those various conditions are to be examined, there being no rule of Community law imposing a pre-established scheme of analysis within which the need to order interim measures must be assessed.

see paras 26-27

2. While the presence of exceptional circumstances is necessary for the judge hearing the application for interim measures to order the suspension of operation of a Commission decision making the non-enforcement of the right to immediate payment of a fine subject to the provision of a bank guarantee, it does not necessarily result in the granting of that suspension. The determination of whether there are exceptional circumstances takes place at the level of the examination of urgency, so that a finding by the judge hearing the application for interim relief that suspension should be granted in order to avoid serious and irreparable damage to the interests of the party seeking that relief does not prevent him from considering the effects which a possible suspension might have on the interests of any other party to the proceedings. In the light of the particular circumstances of each case, the judge must therefore be able to determine whether it is appropriate to weigh up the interests involved.

In that respect, it may prove particularly expedient to weigh up the interests where the applicant is in liquidation. In such circumstances, granting suspension of operation of the decision imposing the fine might have harmful consequences for the Community's interests and affect them irreversibly.

see paras 29-31

3. Article 225 EC and Article 58 of the Statute of the Court of Justice, which limit appeals to points of law, to the exclusion of any appraisal of the facts, apply equally to appeals brought under the second paragraph of Article 57 of that statute against decisions of the Court of First Instance given in applications for interim relief. It follows that, save where the clear sense of the evidence has been distorted, the balancing of the interests which the judge hearing an application for interim relief has carried out cannot be challenged in appeal proceedings brought under the second subparagraph of Article 57 of the Statute.

see paras 34, 36-37