No L 272/36 Official Journal of the European Communities 25. 10. %96 COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 96/67/EC of 15 October 1996 on access to the groundhandling market at Community airports THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 84 (2) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (3), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189¢c of the Treaty (), (1) Whereas the Community has gradually introduced a common air transport policy with the aim of completing the internal market in accordance with Article 7a of the Treaty as a lasting contribution to promoting economic and social progress; (2) Whereas the objective of Article 59 of the Treaty is to eliminate the restrictions on freedom to provide services in the Community; whereas, in accordance with Article 61 of the Treaty, that objective must be achieved within the framework of the common transport policy; (3) Whereas through Council Regulations (EEC) No 2407/92 (%), (EEC) No 2408/92() and (EEC) No 2409/92 () that objective has been attained with regard to air transport services as such; (4) Whereas groundhandling services are essential to the proper functioning of air transport; whereas they make an essential contribution to the efficient use of air transport infrastructure; (5) Whereas the opening-up of access to the ground- handling market should help reduce the operating costs of airline companies and improve the quality of service provided to airport users; (6) Whereas in the light of the principle of subsidiarity it is essential that access to the groundhandling market should take place within a Community framework, while allowing Member States the poss- ibility of taking into consideration the specific nature of the sector; (7) Whereas in its communication of June 1994 entitled “The way forward for civil aviation in Europe’ the Commission indicated its intention of taking an () OJ No C 142,8.6.1995, p. 7 and O] No C 124, 27. 4. 1996, . 19, ® %j No C 301, 13. 11. 1995, p. 28. (%) Opinion of the European Parliament of 16 November 1995 (OJ No C 323, 4. 12. 1995, p. 106), common position of the Council of 28 March 1996 (O] No C 134, 6. 5. 1996, p. 30) and Decision of the European Parliament of 16 July 1996 (O] No C 261, 9. 9. 1996). - () OJ No L 240, 24. 8. 1992, p. 1. () OJ No L 240, 24. 8. 1992, p. 8. Regulation as amended by the 1994 Act of Accession. () OJ No L 240, 24. 8. 1992, p. 15. initiative before the end of 1994 in order to achieve access to the groundhandling market at Community airports; whereas the Council, in its resolution of 24 October 1994 on the situation in European civil aviation (°), confirmed the need to take account of the imperatives linked to the situation of airports when opening up the market; (8) Whereas, in its resolution of 14 February 1995 on European civil aviation (%), the European Parliament repeated its concern that account should be taken of the impact of access to the groundhandling market on employment and safety conditions at Community airports; (9) Whereas free access to the groundhandling market is consistent with the efficient operation of Community airports; (10) Whereas free access to the groundhandling market must be introduced gradually and be adapted to the requirements of the sector; (11) Whereas for certain categories of groundhandling services access to the market and self-handling may come up against safety, security, capacity and avail- able-space constraints; whereas it is therefore neces- sary to be able to limit the number of authorized suppliers of such categories of groundhandling services; whereas it should also be possible to limit self-handling; whereas, in that case, the criteria for limitation must be relevant, objective, transparent and non-discriminatory; (12) Whereas if the number of suppliers of ground- handling services is limited effective competition will require that at least one of the suppliers should ulti- mately be independent of both the managing body of the airport and the dominant carrier; (13) Whereas if airports are to function properly they must be able to reserve for themselves the manage- ment of certain infrastructures which for technical reasons as well as for reasons of profitability or envi- ronmental impact are difficult to divide or duplicate; whereas the centralized management of such infras- tructures may not, however, constitute an obstacle to their use by suppliers of groundhandling services or by self-handling airport users; () OJ No C 309, 5. 11. 1994, p. 2. () O] No C 56, 6. 3. 1995, p. 28.