L 173/32 Official Journal of the European Communities 18.6.98 COMMISSION COMMISSION DECISION of 14 January 1998 on the application of Article 9 of Council Directive 96/67/EC to Frankfurt Airport (Flughafen Frankfurt/Main AG) (notified under document number C(1998) 67) (Only the German text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (98/387/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Directive 96/67/EC of 15 October 1996 on access to the groundhandling market at Community airports ('), and in particular Article 9(5) thereof, After consulting the Advisory Committee established thereunder, Whereas: I. SCOPE OF THE EXEMPTION NOTIFIED BY GER- MANY 1. The notification presented by the German authorities By letter of 8 April 1997, received by the Commission on 10 April 1997, the German authorities notified a com- munication from the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany dated 27 March 1997 granting Frankfurt airport (Flughafen Frankfurt/Main AG) the following exemption: (a) to allow the airport to ban self-handling for the cat- egories of services referred to in points 3, 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6 in the Annex to Directive 96/67/EC (the Dir- ective) and self-handling as regards the physical handling of freight and mail, whether incoming, outgoing or in transit, between the air terminal and the aircraft. This exemption, granted on the basis of () OJ L 272, 25. 10. 1996, p. 36. Atrticle 9(1)(d) of the Directive, ran from 1 January 1998; (b) to reserve to Frankfurt airport the monopoly on the provision to third parties of the categories of services referred to in points 3, 54, 5.5 and 5.6 in the Annex to the Directive, and also for the handling of freight and mail, whether incoming, outgoing or in transit, between the air terminal and the aircraft. This exemp- tion, granted on the basis of Article 9(1)(b) of the Directive, runs from 1 January 1999. By letter dated 13 June 1997, the Commission informed the German authorities that this notification could not be accepted, in particular on the grounds that: a) the scope of the exemption granted had not been h pe of th ption g d had b precisely defined, which allowed the airport alone to decide whether or not to ban self-handling; (b) no plan aimed to overcome the problems cited had been submitted. By letter dated 15 October 1997, received by the Commission on 20 October 1997, and supplemented by a letter dated 9 December 1997, Germany notified a further communication dated 29 September 1997 supplementing that of 27 March 1997 and granting the following exemp- tion: (a) to ban self-handling, save in the cases already author- ised prior to the exemption decision, for the categ- ories of services referred to in points 3, 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6 in the Annex to the Directive, and to ban self- handling as regards the handling of freight and mail,