Procedural declarations may be made with the proviso that certain conditions are met, as long as a case is already pending (J 16/94, referring to Art. 108 EPC 1973, first sentence, and R. 64(b) EPC 1973; T 854/02) and these conditions do not concern facts outside the proceedings (T 502/02). Thus, whereas a conditional appeal is not possible, the conditional withdrawal of an appeal may be valid (T 6/92, T 304/99). However, the withdrawal of an appeal can take effect only if the appeal is still pending (T 1402/13 of 25 February 2016 date: 2016-02-25).

When an appellant has clearly withdrawn his appeal, the appeal proceedings can be closed without a reasoned written decision, even if the appellant has appended to his declaration of withdrawal an obviously non-allowable request for a refund of the appeal fee (T 1142/04).