Order of the General Court (Seventh Chamber) of 23 January 2014 — Confederación de Cooperativas Agrarias de España and CEPES v Commission

(Case T‑156/10)

Action for annulment — State aid — Spanish legislation laying down measures in favour of agricultural cooperatives following the fuel price increase — Decision declaring the aid incompatible with the internal market — Professional associations — No individual concern — No recovery — No longer any interest in bringing proceedings — Inadmissibility

1.                     Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Interest in bringing proceedings — Disappearance of such an interest on account of an event occurring after the application was lodged — No need to adjudicate (Art. 263, fourth para., TFEU) (see paras 27, 28, 53-55, 57)

2.                     Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Measures of direct and individual concern to them — Commission decision finding aid incompatible with the internal market following a first decision finding it compatible at the conclusion of a formal investigation procedure — Action by an association which participated in that procedure, but whose role did not go beyond the exercise of the procedural rights of the persons concerned under Article 108(2) TFEU — Inadmissibility (Arts 108(2) TFEU and 263, fourth para., TFEU; Council Regulation No 659/1999, Arts 1(h), and 20) (see paras 33-36)

3.                     Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Measures of direct and individual concern to them — Commission decision finding aid incompatible with the internal market — Action by an association of cooperatives claiming to be actual beneficiaries of aid but not producing sufficient evidence in that respect — Inadmissibility (Art. 263, fourth para., TFEU) (see paras 46-51)

4.                     Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Interest in bringing proceedings — Need for an actual and current interest — Commission decision finding aid incompatible with the internal market and ordering its recovery — No national measures adopted for recovering the aid — Interest based on a future and uncertain decision of the Commission or of a national court requiring the adoption of recovery measures — Inadmissibility (Art. 263, fourth para., TFEU) (see paras 59, 60, 62)

Re:

APPLICATION to annul Commission decision 2010/473/EU of 15 December 2009 relating to measures to support agriculture implemented by Spain following a fuel price increase (OJ 2010 L 235, p. 1).

Operative part

1. The action is dismissed as inadmissible.

2. The Confederación de Cooperativas Agrarias de España and the Confederación Empresarial Española de la Economía Social (CEPES) are ordered to bear their own costs and pay the costs incurred by the European Commission.

3. The Asociación de Empresarios de Estaciones de Servicio de la Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (Aeescam) is ordered to bear its own costs.