(5) As one of the measures which will enhance overall competition in and between ports of the Community, facilitating access to the port services market at Community level should remove existing restrictions that hamper access for providers of port services and self-handlers, improve the quality of service provided to users of the port, increase efficiency and flexibility, help reduce costs and thereby contribute to promoting short sea shipping and combined transport.

Among the other amendments in the Committee's report, I would like in particular to highlight the fundamental extension of the scope of the proposal to include port access, be it by sea routes or canals, likewise a more restrictive definition of self-handling and the abandonment of the requirement for at least two service providers per category of cargo handling, likewise the requirement we have incorporated into the opinion, that, when tenders are invited, the new service provider should compensate its predecessor for the investments.

Self-handling describes the situation where a port user provides for itself one or more categories of port services, for example ferry operators carry out their own loading operations.

Driving or pilot's licences, television or radio licences, firearm licences, museum or library admissions, garbage disposal fees, etc. are treated in most cases as purchases of services rendered by government, whereas licences on the use of vehicles, boats or aircraft are treated in most cases as taxes.

(d) payments by households for licences other than licences on the use of vehicles, boats or aircraft, or licences to hunt, shoot or fish: driving or pilot's licences, television or radio licences, firearm licences, museum or library admissions, garbage disposal fees, etc. which are treated in most cases as purchases of services rendered by government (47).

To ensure that passenger traffic in airports is not held up and to avoid the administrative complications which would be caused by applying different controls according to the destination of passengers travelling on a means of transport visiting extra-Community ports or airports, the Regulation would not apply to: - the cabin and checked baggage of passengers taking a flight in an aircraft that began its journey at a non-Community airport and which pursues it between two Community airports; - 2 - - the cabin and checked baggage of passengers taking a flight in an aircraft which, after a leg between two Community airports, continues its journey to a non-Community airport; - the baggage of passengers using a maritime ...[+++]service effected in one vessel and comprising successive legs departing from, terminating in or calling at a non-Community port; - the baggage of passengers on board pleasure craft.