Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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Application for interim measures - Interim measures - Conditions for granting - Serious and irreparable harm - Obligation for certain milk producers who have not obtained reference quantities exempt from the additional levy to choose between accepting flat-rate compensation which they consider unsatisfactory and waiting for an indefinite period for compensation - Interim measures not appearing to be necessary after examination of the consequences of accepting the flat-rate compensation

(Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 104(2); Council Regulation No 2187/93)

Summary

The urgency of an application for interim measures must be assessed in relation to the necessity for an order granting interim relief in order to prevent serious and irreparable damage to the party requesting the interim measure. It is for that party to prove that he cannot await the outcome of the main proceedings without suffering harm which would involve serious and irreparable consequences.

The fact that milk producers seeking compensation for damage caused to them by the refusal, held by the Court to be unlawful, to allocate to them reference quantities exempt from the additional levy on the expiry of their non-marketing undertaking must either accept the flat-rate compensation provided for by Regulation No 2187/93 and relinquish any claim, or await the outcome of the actions for compensation brought by them before the Community judicature in order to obtain compensation, is not of such a nature as to expose them to the risk of suffering such harm.

Although it is true that a producer who is in debt and involved with proceedings brought by his creditors is not in a position to wait for an indefinite period for payment of damages, the acceptance of the offer of flat-rate compensation upon the conditions laid down in the abovementioned regulation does not necessarily signify the permanent loss of the right to obtain the more extensive compensation to which the producers concerned consider themselves to be entitled. That is due to the fact that, if, as those producers claim, the flat-rate compensation scheme provided for by the regulation is illegal, the annulment by the Community judicature of the contested provisions in the course of actions which have not been withdrawn will create a new situation which, as the defendant institutions expressly conceded at the hearing of the application for interim measures, will offer to all the producers concerned the possibility of claiming compensation calculated on the basis of a longer period than that adopted for the purposes of the flat-rate compensation. In that case, compensation might be calculated on the basis of actual losses, but that would not impair the rights of the producers concerned.

Accordingly, the application for interim measures must be dismissed since the acceptance by the applicants of the offer of flat-rate compensation provided for by Regulation No 2187/93 is not, in itself, of such a nature as to cause them serious and irreparable harm.