11.11.98 Official Journal of the European Communities L 300/41 COMMISSION DECISION of 30 October 1998 on the application of Article 9 of Council Directive 96/67/EC to Hamburg Airport (Flughafen Hamburg GmbH) (notified under document number C(1998) 3338) (Only the German text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (98/632/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, Having regard to the request for approval of the decision of the German authorities of 30 July 1998 and after consultation of those authorities, After consulting the Advisory Committee, Whereas: I. SCOPE OF THE EXEMPTION NOTIFIED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY 1. The notification presented by the German authorities By letter of 30 July 1998, received by the Commission on 3 August 1998, the German authorities notified a request to approve the decision of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany of 23 July 1998 to grant to Hamburg airport (Flughafen Hamburg GmbH) an exemp- tion to: — limit self-handling to a single user, and — reserve for Hamburg Airport (Flughafen Hamburg GmbH) the provision of services to third parties, for the categories of service listed under point 5.4 of the Annex to the Directive. This exemption is granted, on the basis of Article 9(1)(d) and (b) of the Directive, until 31 December 2000. The notification specifies that in the event of no user asking to be self-handling, a service provider will be admitted, but only for a limited number of operations. Pursuant to Article 9(3) of the Directive, the Commission published an extract from the said notification in the () OJ L 272, 25. 10. 1996, p. 36. Official Journal of the European Communities(?) and invited interested parties to submit comments. In accordance with Article 9(5) of the Directive, the German Government was consulted by the Commission on the Commission’s draft evaluation on 24 September 1998. The German authorities responded to this consulta- tion with written comments dated 1 October 1998. Basis of the exemption The general rules for access to the groundhandling services market are set out in Articles 6 and 7 of the Directive. These provisions clearly state the principle that most categories of groundhandling services should be opened up to the maximum possible extent. For an airport with a volume of traffic like that of Hamburg the Directive provides for recognition of the right to self- handle as from 1 January 1998 and opens up the handling market to third parties as from 1 January 1999. However, because of the specific situation and role of an airport, and in particular constraints of safety and security, but also space and capacity, which can arise in certain parts of most airports, the Directive does not impose total freedom but requires a minimum degreee of opening up of both self-handling and services to third parties for four categories of services located air-side, i.e. in a particularly sensitive area of the airport. These categories concern ramp handling, baggage handling, fuel handling and certain freight and mail handling operations. Council Directive 96/67/EC also takes account of the fact that, in certain very special cases, severe space and capacity problems prevent the opening-up of the market to the degree provided for. In such cases, exemptions may be granted on a temporary basis to give the airports the time to overcome the constraints. These exemptions can therefore be only exceptional in nature and are not intended to automatically give airports an extra trans- itional period in addition to that already provided for in Article 1 of the Directive. () OJ C 267, 26. 8. 1998.