Order of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 4April 2014—
Flughafen Lübeck
(Case C‑27/13)
Article99 of the Rules of Procedure— State aid— Articles107 TFEU and 108 TFEU— Advantages granted by a public undertaking operating an airport to a low-cost airline— Decision to open the formal investigation procedure— Obligation of the courts of the Member States to follow the Commission’s assessment in that decision as regards the existence of aid
1.Questions referred for a preliminary ruling— Questions the answer to which may be clearly deduced from the Court’s existing case-law— Application of Article99 of the Rules of Procedure (Rules of Procedure of the Court, Art. 99) (see para. 16)
2.State aid— Respective powers of the Commission and the national courts— Role of the national courts— Commission decision to initiate the formal investigation procedure in respect of aid— Obligation of the national courts to draw the consequences from a possible infringement of the duty to suspend the measures examined— Suspension of the implementation of the measure at issue and recovery of the sums already paid— Grant of interim measures (Art. 4(3) TEU; Art. 108(2) and (3) TFEU) (see paras 20-27, operative part 1)
3.State aid— Respective powers of the Commission and the national courts— Role of the national courts— Commission decision to initiate the formal investigation procedure in respect of aid— Obligation of the national court to give a ruling on the application seeking the recovery of payments and that future payments be stopped without waiting for the formal investigation procedure to be concluded— Possibility of staying proceedings— No such possibility (Art. 108(3) TFEU) (see paras 30-32, operative part 2)
Re:
| Request for a preliminary ruling— Schleswig-Holsteinisches Oberlandesgericht— Interpretation of Article108(3) TFEU— State aid— Benefits granted to an airline by a public undertaking operating at an airport cheaply– Commission decision to conduct a formal review of this aid— Obligation of the national courts of the Member States to comply with the Commission’s decision concerning the selective nature of the aid— Liability of the competent court to suspend the case for formal consideration by the Commission. |
Operative part:
1. |
| Where, by application of Article108(3) TFEU, the European Commission has opened the formal investigation procedure provided for in Article108(2) TFEU with regard to a non-notified measure currently being implemented, a national court, hearing an application for the cessation of the implementation of that measure and the recovery of the sums already paid, is required to adopt all the measures necessary to draw the appropriate conclusions from any breach of the obligation to suspend the implementation of that measure. |
To that end, the national court may decide either to suspend the implementation of the measure at issue and order the recovery of the sums already paid or to order interim measures in order to safeguard, firstly, the interests of the parties concerned and, secondly, the effectiveness of the Commission’s decision to open the formal investigation procedure.
2. |
| A national court cannot, in a situation such as that at issue in the main proceedings, stay the proceedings until the closure of the formal investigation procedure. |