Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 5 May 2015 — Kingdom of Spain v European Parliament and Council of the European Union

(Case C-146/13) ¹

(Action for annulment — Implementing enhanced cooperation — Creation of unitary patent protection — Regulation (EU) No 1257/2012 — First paragraph of Article 118 TFEU — Legal basis — Article 291 TFEU — Delegation of powers to bodies outside the European Union — Principles of autonomy and uniform application of EU law)

Language of the case: Spanish

Parties

Applicant: Kingdom of Spain (represented by: E. Chamizo Llatas and S. Centeno Huerta, acting as Agents)

Defendants: European Parliament (represented by: M. Gómez-Leal, M. Dean and U. Rösslein, acting as Agents) and Council of the European Union (represented by: T. Middleton, F. Florindo Gijón, M. Balta and L. Grønfeldt, acting as Agents)

Interveners in support of the defendants: Kingdom of Belgium (represented by: C. Pochet, J.-C. Halleux and T. Materne, acting as Agents), Czech Republic (represented by: M. Smolek and J. Vláčil, acting as Agents), Kingdom of Denmark (represented by: C. Thorning and M. Wolff, acting as Agents), Federal Republic of Germany (represented by: T. Henze, M. Möller and J. Kemper, acting as Agents), French Republic (represented by: G. de Bergues, F.-X. Bréchot, D. Colas and N. Rouam, acting as Agents), Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Hungary (represented by: M. Fehér and K. Szíjjártó, acting as Agents), Kingdom of the Netherlands (represented by: M. Bulterman and J. Langer, acting as Agents), Kingdom of Sweden (represented by: A. Falk, C. Meyer-Seitz and U. Persson, acting as Agents), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (represented by: M. Holt, acting as Agent, and by J. Stratford QC and T. Mitcheson, Barrister) and European Commission (represented by: I. Martínez del Peral, T. van Rijn, B. Smulders and F. Bulst, acting as Agents)Operative part of the judgmentThe Court:Dismisses the action;Orders the Kingdom of Spain to bear its own costs and to pay the costs incurred by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union;Orders the Kingdom of Belgium, the Czech Repub

lic, the Kingdom of Denmark, th

e Federal R

epublic of Germany, th

e French Republic, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Hungary, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Sweden, the United Kingdom of Great Brit

ain and Northern Ireland and the European Commission to bear their own costs.