B. whereas traditional criminal organisations have gradually extended their operating range on an international scale, exploiting the opportunities offered by the opening of the internal borders of the European Union, as well as economic globalisation and new technologies, and entering into alliances with criminal groups in other countries (examples being the South American drug cartels and Russian-speaking organised crime) in order to carve up markets and spheres of influence; whereas, increasingly, criminal groups are diversifying in their operations, with links growing between drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings, facilitati ...[+++]on of irregular immigration and weapons trafficking; whereas the link between terrorism and organised crime is becoming increasingly organic;

The Regulation would have to be amended in order to enable the entire Kaliningrad district to be considered as one single border area, since according to the Regulation a local border area is defined as a 30-km zone which may exceptionally extend to up to 50 km. Such an amendment would prevent the artificial fragmentation of a region of about one million inhabitants in total into three districts (one covered by a local border traffic agreement with Pola ...[+++]nd, one by an agreement with Lithuania and one without any agreement at all as it lies outside the border area) and enable all inhabitants, under the conditions laid out in the Regulation, to enjoy facilitations for local border traffic.

An EU country may impose a public service obligation for a scheduled air route between an EU airport and an airport serving a peripheral or development region in its territory, or on a thin route to an airport in its territory, if ensuring minimum services on that route is considered vital for the economic and social development of the region which the airport serves.

1. Without prejudice to the scope of activities which may be considered as "cabotage" under the relevant national legislation, this schedule does not include "maritime cabotage services", which are assumed to cover transportation of passengers or goods between a port located in a Member State and another port located in the same Member State and traffic originating and terminating in the same port located in a Member State provided that this traffic remains within this Member State's territorial waters.

1. Without prejudice to the scope of activities which may be considered as "cabotage" under the relevant national legislation, this schedule does not include "maritime cabotage services", which are assumed to cover transportation of passengers or goods between a port located in a Member State and another port located in the same Member State and traffic originating and terminating in the same port located in a Member State provided that this traffic remains within this Member State's territorial waters.

According to Article 4(1)(a) of the Regulation on access for Community air carriers to intra-Community air routes [55], a Member State, following consultations with the other Member States concerned and after having informed the Commission and air carriers operating on the route, may impose a public service obligation in respect of scheduled air services to an airport serving a peripheral or development region in its territory or on a thin route to any regional airport in its territory, any such route being considered vital for the economic development of the region in which the airport is located, to the extent necessary to ensure on that route the adequate provision of scheduled air services satisfying fixed standards of continuity, regul ...[+++]arity, capacity and pricing, which standards air carriers would not assume if they were solely considering their commercial interest.