L 138/50 Official Journal of the European Union 30.4.2004 REGULATION (EC) No 793/2004 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 21 April 2004 amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airports THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 80(2) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (%), Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (2), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (?), Whereas: (1) Following the conclusions of the European Council held in Stockholm on 23 and 24 March 2001, this Regulation constitutes a first step in a comprehensive revision process. In order to keep abreast of developments, in particular with respect to new entrants and market access issues, this Regulation should be reviewed after a fixed period of operation. (2)  Experience has shown that Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 (*) should be strengthened to ensure the fullest and most flexible use of limited capacity at congested airports. (3) It is therefore necessary to amend that Regulation in accordance with Article 14 thereof and to clarify a number of its provisions. (4) It is desirable to follow international terminology and therefore to use the terms ‘schedules facilitated airport’ and ‘coordinated airport’ instead of ‘coordinated airport’ and ‘fully-coordinated airport’ respectively. () O] C 270 E, 25.9.2001, p. 131. (3 0] C 125, 27.5.2002, p. 8. (®) Opinion of the European Parliament of 11 June 2002 (OJ C 261 E, 30.10.2003, p. 116), Council Common Position of 19 February 2004 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Position of the European Parliament of 1 April 2004 (not yet published in the Official Journal). () OJ L 14, 22.1.1993, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1554/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (O] L 221, 4.9.2003, p. 1). () Airports with a serious shortfall in capacity should be designated as ‘coordinated airports’ on the basis of objective criteria after a capacity analysis has been conducted. At coordinated airports detailed rules are required to ensure that the principles of transparency, neutrality and non-discrimination are fully adhered to. Specific activities such as helicopter operations should not be subject to slot allocation rules where these are not necessary. At schedules facilitated airports the schedules facilitator should act in an independent manner. At coordinated airports the coordinator plays a central role in the coordinating process. Therefore, coordinators should be in a fully independent position and their responsibilities should be specified in detail. It is necessary to specify in detail the role of the coordination committee which is established to advise and mediate in relation to slot allocation. Member State representatives should be invited to meetings of the coordination committee as observers without voting rights. Such observer status should be without prejudice to the possibility that such representatives could chair committee meetings. It is important to ensure that the coordination committee has no power to take decisions that would be binding on the coordinator. It is also necessary to make clear that slot allocation should be considered as giving air carriers permission to access the airport facilities for landing and taking-off at specific dates and times for the duration of the period for which the permission is granted. The need to develop rules and procedures for coordinating airport and airway slots should be examined. However, in the interest of stability of operations, the existing system provides for the reallocation of slots with established historical precedence (grandfather rights’ ) to incumbent air carriers. In order to encourage regular operations at coordinated airports it is necessary to provide that grandfather rights relate to series of slots. At the same time, Member States should, when defining capacity parameters, be able to take account of operational and environmental constraints.