61997B0229

Applications for interim measures - Suspension of operation of a measure - Conditions for granting - Serious and irreparable damage - No such damage in the case of an association of sugar manufacturers seeking suspension of the fixing of a disadvantageous intervention price

(EC Treaty, Art. 185; the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 104(2))

The urgency of an application for interim measures must be assessed in relation to the necessity for an interim order to prevent serious and irreparable damage to the party applying for them. It is for that party to prove that it cannot wait for the outcome of the main proceedings without suffering damage that would entail serious and irreparable consequences.

An application for interim measures, submitted by an association of sugar manufacturers and requesting the suspension of a legislative provision fixing for the following marketing year the derived intervention price for white sugar, must be dismissed where the alleged damage consists of, first, a continuing reduction in the guaranteed sugar production quotas for Community manufacturers, although there can be no real danger of a reduction in those quotas until a time by which it is probable that judgment will already have been given in the main proceedings and, second, loss of a considerable share of the European sugar market to the advantage of importers of non-Community sugar, damage which has not been demonstrated to be serious and irreparable and, in any event, does not appear to be irreversible having regard to the effects of possible annulment of the contested provision.