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Whereas the abolition, as between Member States, of obstacles to freedom of movement for services is laid down by Article 3 of the Treaty as one of the activities of the Community; Whereas in accordance with Article 61 of the Treaty freedom to provide services in the field of maritime transport is to be governed by the provisions of the Title relating to transport; Whereas the application of this principle within the Community is also a necessary condition for effectively pursuing, in relation to third countries, a policy aiming at safeguarding the continuing application of commercial principles in shipping; Whereas Council Regulation (EEC) No 954/79 () preserves, inter alia, within conferences competitive access to that part of cargo liner shipping which is not covered by commitments to national shipping lines of third countries under the United Nations Convention on a Code of Conduct for Liner Conferences, when ratified by Member States;

Whereas, taking into account the fact that the Code of Conduct has not yet been ratified by all Member States and that certain third countries are not likely to ratify it, the Code is not yet applied in all Community trades nor is it likely to apply in the future in some of these trades; Whereas the code of conduct applies only to liner conferences and the cargo carried by their members, and not to independent lines or to shipping companies operating in the field of bulk or tramp shipping, where the Community aims at maintaining a regime of fair and free competition; Whereas the Community fully endorses Resolution No 2 adopted by the United Nations Conference of Plenipotentaries on a Code of Conduct for Liner Conferences and which states that in the interests of sound development of liner shipping services, non-conference shipping liners should not be prevented from operating as long as they adhere to the principle of fair competition on a commercial basis;

Whereas the Member States affirm their commitment to a freely competitive environment as being an essential feature of the dry and liquid bulk trades and are convinced that the introduction of cargosharing in these trades will have a serious effect on the trading interests of all countries by substantially increasing transportation costs; Whereas Community shipowners are increasingly faced with new restrictions, imposed by third countries, on the freedom to provide maritime transport services for shippers established in their own country, in other Member States or in the third countries concerned, which may have harmful effects on Community trades as a whole; Whereas some of the abovementioned restrictions are incorporated in bilateral agreements between third countries and some Member States, while other restrictions are reflected in similar provisions in the legislation or in administrative practices of some Member States;

Whereas therefore the principle of freedom to provide services should now be applied to maritime transport between Member States and between Member States and third countries so as progressively to abolish existing restrictions and prevent the introduction of new restrictions; Whereas the structure of the Community shipping industry is such as to make it appropriate that the provisions of this Regulation should also apply to nationals of the Member States established outside the Community and to shipping companies established outside the Community and controlled by nationals of a Member State, if their vessels are registered in that Member State in accordance with its legislation; Whereas provision should be made for reasonable transitional periods in accordance with the character of the type of transport concerned, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: