The European Court of Justice ruled recently that Portugal has failed to fulfil the legislation concerning the opening to the free competition of groundhandling at airports of Lisbon, Porto e Faro, condemning the Country bear the procedural costs.
The judgment of the Court of Justice determines that the Portuguese Republic, by failing to take the necessary measures to ensure that a selection process was organized of operators authorized to provide groundhandling services to baggage, the ramp and the cargo and mail at the airports of Lisbon, Porto e Faro, […] failed to fulfil its obligations under this article Lisbon and to pay the costs of the proceedings, an amount not indicated.
The Court considers that Member States may not introduce transitional arrangements for the process for the selection of operators ' handling’ at airports.
Por outro lado, the judgment also points out that the Act of sale of Groundfource cannot be considered equivalent to the process of selection of other providers of groundhandling services.
The judgment stresses that the Groundforce, After being acquired by Globalia, saved the authorization to provide groundhandling services that had been granted, so it wasn't possible for a supplier of groundhandling services obtain the authorisation without, ao mesmo tempo, acquire shares of Groundforce.
To the Court of Justice of the European Union, the process had the effect of damaging the objective pursued by Directive 96/67, a saber, the opening up to competition of the market for groundhandling services.
According to the judgment, This condition just, por si só, to complete this process cannot be considered a process of selection of suppliers of groundhandling services within the meaning of article 11 of Directive 96/67. Logo, It is not necessary to examine whether the other conditions laid down are met in this article.
