Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Applications for interim measures ° Suspension of operation ° Interim measures ° Conditions for granting ° Serious and irreparable damage ° Damage which a Member State may invoke

(EEC Treaty, Arts 185 and 186; Rules of Procedure of the Court, Art. 83(2))

2. Applications for interim measures ° Suspension of operation ° Interim measures ° Conditions for granting ° Serious and irreparable damage ° Balancing of all the interests involved ° Application by a Member State to be authorized, as far as it is concerned, to defer the implementation of certain mechanisms of a new common organization of the agricultural markets

(EEC Treaty, Arts 185 and 186; Rules of Procedure of the Court, Art. 83(2); Council Regulation No 404/93)

Summary

1. The urgency of an interim measure must be assessed in relation to the necessity to give an interim judgment in order to prevent serious and irreparable damage being occasioned by the immediate application of the measure at issue in the main proceedings. As regards the nature of the damage which may be invoked, it must be pointed out that the Member States are responsible for interests, in particular those of an economic and social nature, which are regarded as general interests at national level, and are therefore entitled to defend such interests before the courts. They may therefore invoke damage affecting a whole sector of their economy, in particular when the contested Community measure may entail unfavourable repercussions on the level of employment and the cost of living.

2. An application for interim measures made by a Member State with a view to obtaining, as far as it alone is concerned, a suspension of the implementation of an important part of a new common organization of the market must be rejected where, on the one hand, the materialization of the risk invoked to an entire sector of the national economy depends upon the occurrence of a number of factors which do not appear to be predictable with a sufficient degree of probability and, on the other hand, the said common organization involves mechanisms allowing the Community authorities to react in the event of that risk materializing and where, moreover there is a serious risk of damage to other Member States if the mechanisms envisaged by the common organization were not brought into force in their entirety in the circumstances envisaged.