Brussels, 19/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - ECTAA, which gathers the national associations of travel agents and tour operators of 28 European countries, including 23 within the EU, and represents 80,000 companies, considers that the European Commission's revised proposal on services in the internal market is “a satisfactory compromise for the industry” (see EUROPE 9167). In a press release, ECTAA President Norbert Draskovits comments, “Our main concern is to guarantee a level playing field for travel agents and tour operators trading within the EU. There are currently a number of Member States which have a licensing scheme in place for the access to the profession of travel agents and tour operators. Fears were expressed that the principle of free provision of services across borders would create distortions of competition between operators subject to stringent authorisation schemes in their country, while foreign operators would be permitted to trade freely in their country without complying with those requirements”. In short, according to the sector, the Commission's amended proposal (which is very close to the compromise on the Gebhardt report reached on first reading in the European Parliament: Ed.) “strikes a good balance between the necessity of fair competition between all service providers acting on a permanent basis in a Member States and the need to allow more flexibility when supplying services on an occasional basis”.