CELEX: 51996PC0075
Language: en
Date: 1996-03-12
Title: Amended proposal for a COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON ACCESS TO THE GROUNDHANDLING MARKET AT COMMUNITY AIRPORTS

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                                       Brussels, 12.03.1996
                                                       COM(96) 75 final
                                                       94/0325 (SYN)
                                     Amended proposal for a
                                    COUNCIL DIRECTIVE
                      ON ACCESS TO THE GROUNDHANDLING MARKET
                                  AT COMMUNITY AIRPORTS
                   (presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 189 a (2)
                                       of the EC-Treaty)
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 ---pagebreak---  ---pagebreak---                                  AMENDED PROPOSAL FOR A
                                      COUNCIL DIRECTIVE
                       ON ACCESS TO THE Groundhandling MARKET
                                  AT COMMUNITY AIRPORTS
                                    Explanatory memorandum
During its plenary session on 16 November 1995 the European Parliament approved the proposal
for a Council Directive presented by the Commission on access to the groundhandling market at
Community airports. It also adopted a certain number of amendments to the text put forward.
The Commission accepted the amendments concerning recitals 1 and 21a since they bolster the
social aspects of the directive, and recital 22 since it enables better account to be taken of the
security problems that are inherent in airports. It also accepted the amendment concerning Article
7.2 which permits better understanding of the scope for limitation concerning the number of users
who can practice air-side self handling.
Likewise it adopts the amendment concerning Article 19 in order better to adapt the date of entry
into force of the provisions of the directive at national level to the progress made in the work
before the Council.
The Commission also partially accepted the amendments concerning:
•        Article 5.1 which clarifies the process for setting up the users' committee.
•        Article 6.2 which includes aircraft cleaning, and air-side passenger, baggage and freight
         transport services among the categories whose number may be subject to limits.
•        Article 8 in that it extends to the operational management of the centralized
         infrastructures the right of a Member State to confer the management of those structures
         solely on the airport or on another entity.
•        Article 9. Id which enables air side self handling to be banned under the exemptions, and
         Article 9.2a which improves the text.
•        Article 12.2 which allows the management body to be informed of the decision taken by
         the Member State in respect of approval
 •       Article 13.1 c(c) c(d) which strengthens the obligation to obey the national safety and
         labour-law rules.
Finally, the Commission accepted to set out Parliament's ideas as regards the following in another
paper:
 •        Recitals 2 and 8b, and Articles 20a and 20b since these references strengthen the
         obligation to comply with existing social regulations at both national and Community
          level.
 •        Recital 19 and Article 4.2 which extend the principle of transparency to all involved in
         providing assistance to third parties.
 •        Articles 1.6, 3, 4.3, 11 and 14.3 which they help to made the wording easier to
         understand.
 ---pagebreak--- However, the Commission was unable to accept the amendments concerning:
      Recitals 2a, 8a and 21b since their content does not meet the aim of the directive.
      Articles 4a and 10.1a since these provisions are already covered by the directive on
      acquired rights.
      Recitals 9, 10, II, 13 and 16 which conflict with the aim of opening up the market
      Articles 10, 15a, 15b, 17 and 21a which restrict access to the market in such a way that
      they form a barrier to the liberalization of the sector.
      Recital 23 which would deny the Commission any rights as regards reciprocity with
      non-Community carriers and service providers.
 ---pagebreak---                                 AMENDED PROPOSAL FOR A
                                     COUNCIL DIRECTIVE
                      ON ACCESS TO THE Groundhandling MARKET
                                 AT COMMUNITY AIRPORTS
Whereas the Community has gradually             Whereas the Community is gradually
introduced a common air transport policy        introducing a common air transport policy
with the aim of completing the Internal         with the aim of completing the internal
Market in accordance with Article 7a of the     market in accordance with Article 7a of the
Treaty,                                         Treaty in order to promote enduring
                                                economic and social progress;
Whereas the Internal Market comprises an        Whereas the internal market comprises an
area free of internal frontiers in which the    area free of internal frontiers in which the
free movement of goods, persons, services       free movement of goods, persons, services
and capital is assured,                         and capitals must be assured; whereas
                                                convergence towards social progress should
                                                be ensured;
Whereas in its Communication of June 1994       Whereas in its communication of
"The Way Forward for Civil Aviation in          1 June 1994 "The Way Forward for Civil
Europe" the Commission indicated its            Aviation in Europe" the Commission
intention to take an initiative before the end  indicated its intention to take an initiative
of 1994 in order to achieve market access       before the end of 1994 in order to achieve
for groundhandling services at Community        market access for groundhandling services at
airports and whereas the Council in its         Community airports, and whereas the
Resolution of 24 October 1994 has               Council, in its Resolution                   of
confirmed the need to take account of the       24 October 1994, has confirmed the need to
imperatives linked to the situation of airports take account of the imperatives linked to the
when effecting the opening of the market,       situation of airports when effecting that
                                                opening of the market;
                                                Whereas in its Resolution                    of
                                                 14 February 1995 on civil aviation in
                                                Europe, Parliament restated its concern to
                                                take account of the impact of access to the
                                                groundhandling market on employment and
                                                safety considerations at Community airports;
Whereas the same transparency requirements      Whereas the same transparency requirements
must apply to users and in particular users     must apply to users who have attained a
who have attained a significant volume of       significant volume of traffic at an airport and
traffic at an airport and wish to provide       wish to provide groundhandling services to
groundhandling services to third parties,       third parties, and to providers of services;
 ---pagebreak--- Whereas for the same reasons Member                   Whereas, for the same reasons, Member
States must retain the power to lay down              States must retain the power to lay down
and apply the necessary rules for the proper          and apply the necessary rules for the proper
functioning of the airport infrastructure;            functioning of the airport infrastructures;
whereas these rules must, however, comply             whereas these rules must, however, comply
with the principles of            objectivity,        with the principles of             objectivity
transparency and non-discrimination,                  transparency and non-discrimination
                                                      Whereas, in order to avoid the risk of social
                                                      dumping Member States should guarantee an
                                                      adequate level of social protection for the
                                                      staff of those companies providing
                                                      groundhandling services;
Wliereas access to airport installations must         Whereas access to airport installations must
be guaranteed to suppliers wishing to                 be guaranteed to those suppliers who art-
provide groundhandling services and to                authorized to provide groundhandling
carriers wishing to self-handle to the extent         services and to those carriers who are
necessary for them to exercise their rights,          authorized self-handle to the extend needed
                                                      for them to exercise their rights;
                                             Article 1
                                            Definitions
For the purposes of this Directive:                   For the purposes of this directive:
6) "managing body of the airport" means               6) "managing body of the airport" means
body which by national law or regulation              public or private legal body, which by
has as its objective the management of the            national law or regulation is responsible lor
airport infrastructures, the coordination and         managing one or several airports and for
control of the activities of the different            coordinating and monitoring the activities of
operators present in the airport or airport           the various operators at that or those
system concerned;                                     airports.
                                             Article 3
                                  Managing body of the airport
1. Where an airport or airport system is              1. Where, at an airport or in an airport
managed and operated not by a single body             system, several bodies are responsible for
but by several separate bodies, each of these         managing and performing airport activities
shall be considered part of the managing              or services, each of these shall comply with
body for the purposes of this Directive.              this directive.
 ---pagebreak---                                     Article 4
                                   Unbundling
Where the managing body of an                1. Where the managing body of an airport,
airport provides groundhandling              a user or provider of services provide
services it must unbundle the                groundhandling services, they must |n
management and accounts of its               accordance with the commercial practices
groundhandling activities from its           applying, unbundle the management and
other activities.                            accounts from their other activities.
Similarly, a user who in the                 Deleted
previous year has carried in excess
of 25% of the freight or passengers
recorded at an airport may not
provide groundhandling services to
third parties at that airport without
unbundling the management and
accounts of the transport activity
from the supply of groundhandling
services to third parties.
 An independent examiner must                 2. an independent examiner appointed by
 check that the unbundling is carried         the Member State, must check that the
 out as required under points 1 and 2         unbundling is carried out as required under
 of this Article.                             paragraph 1.
 He shall in particular check the             He shall, in particular, check the absence of
 absence of any financial flow from           any financial flow from other activities to
 other activities to those of                 those of groundhandling.
 groundhandling.
 He shall have at all times access to          He shall have at all times access to the
 the accounts of the undertaking. He           accounts of the undertaking. He shall report
  shall report to the Commission at            to the Commission at least once a year and
  least once a year and each time he           each time he ascertains a failure to maintain
  ascertains a failure to maintain the         the mandatory unbundling.
  mandatory unbundling.
 ---pagebreak---                                             Article 5
                                     The Users Committee
       Twelve months at the latest                    1. Twelve months at the latest following the
       following the entry into force of this        entry into force of this directive, Member
       Directive, Member States shall                States shall ensure that the Committee of
       introduce the measures necessary to           Users' Representatives is set up for each of
       set up a committee of users'                  the airports referred to in the second
       representatives for each of the               subparagraph of Article 2(1).
       airports referred to in the second
       subparagraph of Article 2 (1).
                                            Article 6
                             Groundhandling for third parties
2.     Member States may limit the                  2. Member States may limit the number of
       number of suppliers authorized to            suppliers authorized to provide the following
       provide the following categories of          categories of groundhandling services:
       groundhandling services:
                                                             baggage handling
               baggage handling                              air side operations
               ramp handling                                 fuelling
               fuelling                                      freight and mail handling
               freight and mail handling.                    aircraft cleaning
                                                             the carriage of passengers, baggage
                                                             and freight between the aircraft and
                                                             any other point at the airport.
Unchanged                                           Unchanged
 ---pagebreak---                                             Article 7
                                          Self handling
2. ...                                               2. ..
Member States may reserve the right to self-         Member States may reserve the right to self-
handle to a limited number of users,                 handle to at least two users for each category
provided they are chosen on the basis of             of service, provided that they are chosen on
relevant, objective, transparent and non-            the basis of relevant, objective, transparent
discriminatory criteria.                             and non-discriminatory criteria.
                                            Article 8
                                 Centralized infrastructures
        Without prejudice to the application         1. Without prejudice to the application of
        of Articles 6 and 7, Member States           Articles 6 and 7, Member States may reserve
        may reserve the technical                    the technical and operational management of
        management of the centralized                the centralized package sorting, deicing,
        baggage sorting, de-icing, water             water purification, fuel           distribution
        purification and fuel distribution           infrastructures either for the managing body
         infrastructures  either for the             of the airport or for another body. They
        managing body of the airport or for          may make it obligatory for suppliers of
        another body. They may make it               groundhandling services and self-handling
        obligatory for suppliers of                  users to use these infrastructures.
        groundhandling services and self-
        handling users to use these
         infrastructures.
                                            Article 9
                                           Exemptions
         Where specific constraints of                1. Where specific constraints of available
         available space or capacity so              space or capacity so warrant, the Member
         warrant, the Member State in                State in question may decide
         question may decide
         (a) stet                                    (a) stet
         (b) stet                                    (b) stet
         (c) stet                                    (c) stet
                                                     (d) to prohibit self handling for the
                                                     categories of groundhandling service referred
                                                     to in Article 7.2 or to restrict these to a
                                                     single user.
 ---pagebreak---           All exemptions decided by virtue of           2. All exemptions decided by virtue of
          point 1 must                                  point 1 must
          (a)     specify the category or               (a) specify the category or categories of
                  categories of services for            service for which the exemption is granted
                  which the exemption is                and the specific space or available-capacity
               .  granted and the technical             constraints which justify it.
                  constraints which justify it;
         (b)      stet                                  (b) stet
                                              Article 11
                                           Consultations
Member States shall take the necessary                 Member States shall take the necessary
measures to organize a compulsory                      measures to organize a compulsory
consultation procedure between the                     consultation procedure between the
managing body of the airport, the Users'               managing body of the airport and the Users'
Committee and the undertakings providing               Committee and the undertakings providing
services. This consultation shall cover, inter         services. That consultation shall cover, inter
alia, the price of those services which have           alia, the price of those service which have
been exempted by the Commission pursuant               been exempted by the Commission pursuant
to Article 9 of this Directive as well as the          to Article 9 as well as the organization of
organization of the provision of these                 the provision of the services, where it is
services. Such consultation shall be                   covered by the payment exacted by the
organised at least once every year.                    airport for access to the airport installations
                                                       in order to perform groundhandling
                                                       operations. Such consultation shall be
                                                       organized at least once every year.
                                             Article 12
                                              Approval
2.       Approval may be withheld only if              2. Approval may be withheld only if, lor
         the supplier does not meet, for               reasons of his doing, the supplier does not
         reasons of his doing, the criteria            meet the criteria referred to in paragraph 1.
         referred to in paragraph 1.
         The grounds for withholding                   The grounds for withholding approval must
         approval must be communicated to               be communicated to the supplier concerned
         the supplier concerned.                        and to the airport management body.
 ---pagebreak---                                         Article 13
                                    Rules of conduct
   A Member State may withdraw its                1. stet
   approval of a supplier or prohibit a
   user from self-handling if that
   supplier or user fails to comply with
   the rules imposed upon him to
   ensure the proper functioning of the
   airport.
   The rules must embody              the
   following principles:
   (a)      they must be applied in a            (a) stet
            non-discriminatory manner
            to the various suppliers and
            users;
   (b)      they must relate to the              (b) stet
            intended objective;
   (c)      they may not in practice             (c) stet
            reduce market access or the
            freedom to self-handle to a
            lesser degree than that
            provided for in this
            Directive.                           (d) The security checks carried out on the
                                                 staff of a service provider shall comply with
                                                 the national regulations and be approved
                                                 during the selection procedure;
                                                 (e) The staff employment conditions shall
                                                 comply with the regulations in force.
2. stet                                          2. stet
                                            1C
 ---pagebreak---                                                Article 14
                                       Access to installations
3.       Access to airport installations for             3. Access to airport installations for suppliers
         suppliers of groundhandling services           of groundhandling services and users
         and users wishing to self-handle               wishing to self-handle may give rise to _ihe
         may give rise to the collection of a            collection of a fee. This fee must be
         fee intended to cover the costs                 determined according to objective,
         which this access occasions for the             transparent and non-discriminatory criteria.
         airport and reflecting the level of the
         costs. This fee must be determined
         according to objective, transparent
         and non-discriminatory criteria.
                                               Article 19
                                           Implementation
Member States shall bring into force the                 Member States shall bring into force the
laws, regulations and administrative                     laws, regulations and administrative
provisions necessary to comply with this                 provisions necessary to comply with this
directive by 30 June 1996. They shall                    directive by 31 December 1996. They shall
immediately inform the Com miss ion thereof.             immediately inform the Commission thereof.
                                                         Stet
                                               Article 20
                                                         Stet
                                               Article 20a
                                                         Without preiudice to the implementation of
                                                         the provisions of this directive and while
                                                         complying with the social provisions of the
                                                         Treaty and of the regulations deriving there
                                                         from. Member States may take the measures
                                                         needed in order to ensure compliance with
                                                         the standards in force and the upholding of
                                                         employees social rights.
                                                   i\
 ---pagebreak---  ---pagebreak---                                                                    ISSN 0254-1475
                                                             COM(96) 75 final
                                              DOCUMENTS
EN                                                                       07 05
                                     Catalogue number : CB-CO-96-085-EN-C
                                                             ISBN 92-78-00921-0
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities
L-2985 Luxembourg
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