'system` means any transmission networks and/or distribution networks and/or LNG facilities owned and/or operated by a natural gas undertaking, including its facilities supplying ancillary services and those of related undertakings necessary for providing access to transmission and distribution;

independent producers and autoproducers to negotiate access to the system so as to supply their own premises and subsidiaries in the same Member State or in another Member State by means of the interconnected system;

The guidelines referred to in paragraph 1 shall constitute a general reference framework intended to encourage the Member States and, where appropriate, the Community in carrying out projects of common interest, the purpose of which is to ensure the cohesion, interconnection and interoperability of the trans-European transport network, as well as access to that network.

The main obstacles in arriving at a fully operational and competitive internal market relate amongst other things to issues of access to the network, tarification issues and different degrees of market opening between Member States.

To ensure homogeneity in the treatment of access to the gas networks, also in the case of transit, that Directive should be repealed, without prejudice to the continuity of contracts concluded under the said Directive.

Commission Decision 1999/310/EC of 23 April 1999 on a common technical regulation for digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) equipment accessing the integrated services digital network (ISDN)

At present cross-border access to postal networks is occasionally rejected, or only allowed subject to conditions, for postal items whose production process includes cross-border data transmission before those postal items were given physical form.

Whereas the aim of the universal services is to offer all users easy access to the postal network through the provision, in particular, of a sufficient number of access points and by ensuring satisfactory conditions with regard to the frequency of collections and deliveries;

These projects, while safeguarding wide access to information in a multiplicity of languages on the global networks, will foster public-private partnerships, serving as catalysts to further developments in this field.

Natural gas undertakings which have not been granted a derogation as referred to in paragraph 1 shall not refuse, or shall no longer refuse, access to the system because of take-or-pay commitments accepted in a gas purchase contract.

In the case of negotiated access, Member States shall take the necessary measures for natural gas undertakings and eligible customers either inside or outside the territory covered by the interconnected system to be able to negotiate access to the system so as to conclude supply contracts with each other on the basis of voluntary commercial agreements. The parties shall be obliged to negotiate access to the system in good faith.

Whatever the mode of operation, railway undertakings within the scope of Article 2 shall be granted, on equitable conditions, the access that they are seeking to the Trans-European Rail Freight Network defined in Article 10(a) and in Annex I after 15 March 2008, to the entire rail network, for the purpose of operating international freight services.

Member States may make authorisation to construct a direct line subject either to the refusal of system access on the basis, as appropriate, of Article 20 or to the opening of a dispute settlement procedure under Article 23.

Commission Decision 1999/498/EC of 7 July 1999 on a common technical regulation for digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) equipment accessing the integrated services digital network (ISDN) (Version 2)

Member States should ensure that, taking into account the necessary quality requirements, biogas and gas from biomass or other types of gas are granted non-discriminatory access to the gas system, provided such access is permanently compatible with the relevant technical rules and safety standards.

Member States shall ensure the implementation of a system of third party access to the transmission and distribution systems based on published tariffs, applicable to all eligible customers and applied objectively and without discrimination between system users.

Transmission system operators shall not, in the context of sales or purchases of natural gas by related undertakings, abuse commercially sensitive information obtained from third parties in the context of providing or negotiating access to the system.

Member States opting for a procedure of regulated access shall take the necessary measures to give natural gas undertakings and eligible customers either inside or outside the territory covered by the interconnected system a right of access to the system, on the basis of published tariffs and/or other terms and obligations for use of that system.

"system" means any transmission networks, distribution networks, LNG facilities and/or storage facilities owned and/or operated by a natural gas undertaking, including linepack and its facilities supplying ancillary services and those of related undertakings necessary for providing access to transmission, distribution and LNG;

Transmission undertakings shall not, in the context of sales or purchases of natural gas by the transmission undertakings or related undertakings, abuse commercially sensitive information obtained from third parties in the context of providing or negotiating access to the system.

Member States may make authorization to construct a direct line subject either to the refusal of system access on the basis, as appropriate, of Article 17 (5) or Article 18 (4) or to the opening of a dispute settlement procedure under Article 20.

Research will focus on the future generation of technologies in which computers and networks will be integrated into the everyday environment, rendering accessible a multitude of services and applications through easy-to-use human interfaces.

For a new entrant, the problem in exploiting access to unbundled copper pairs is that it entails building out its core network to the incumbent's local exchanges where the copper pairs are terminated; in a typical European country this could number several thousand sites.

The obligation to provide non-discriminatory access to the public postal network does not mean that Member States ar required to ensure access for items of correspondence from its territory, which were conveyed by commercial companies to another State, in breach of a postal monopoly, to be introduced in the public postal network via a postal operator of that other State, for the sole purpose of taking advantage of lower postal tariffs.

In the case of regulated access Member States shall take the necessary measures to give natural gas undertakings and eligible customers either inside or outside the territory covered by the interconnected system a right to access to storage, linepack and other ancillary services, on the basis of published tariffs and/or other terms and obligations for use of that storage and linepack, when technically and/or economically necessary for providing efficient access to the system, as well as for the organisation of access to other ancillary services.

Distribution undertakings shall not, in the context of sales or purchases of natural gas by the distribution undertakings or related undertakings, abuse commercially sensitive information obtained from third parties in the context of providing or negotiating access to the system.

It would not be appropriate to apply distance-related tariffs, or, provided appropriate locational signals are in place, a specific tariff to be paid only by exporters or importers in addition to the general charge for access to the national network.

Commission Decision 1999/310/EC of 23 April 1999 on a common technical regulation for digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) equipment accessing the integrated services digital network (ISDN)(4) is to be incorporated into the Agreement,

be capable of being connected to the networks of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) States, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean countries, while at the same time promoting interoperability and access to these networks, insofar as this proves to be in the Community's interest.

For the incumbent, provision of a high-speed bit-stream service is attractive in that it does not involve physical access to copper pairs, and so does not hinder the progressive modernisation of the local access network (i.e. replacing copper by fibre).

Commission Decision 1999/498/EC of 7 July 1999 on a common technical regulation for digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) equipment accessing the integrated services digital network (ISDN) (Version 2)(4) is to be incorporated into the Agreement,

Providing access to the local loop to all new entrants will increase the level of competition and technological innovation in the local access network, which will in turn stimulate the competitive provision of a full range of telecommunication services from simple voice telephony to broadband services to the customer.

Where an information society service is provided that consists of the transmission in a communication network of information provided by a recipient of the service, or the provision of access to a communication network, Member States shall ensure that the service provider is not liable for the information transmitted, on condition that the provider:

Each Member shall ensure that service suppliers of any other Member may use public telecommunications transport networks and services for the movement of information within and across borders, including for intra-corporate communications of such service suppliers, and for access to information contained in data bases or otherwise stored in machine-readable form in the territory of any Member.

The general authorisation entitles undertakings providing electronic communications networks and services to the public to negotiate interconnection under the conditions of Directive 2002/19/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on access to, and interconnection of, electronic communication networks and associated facilities (Access Directive)(6).

The European Parliament and the Council, acting on a proposal from the Commission and on the basis of Articles 57(2), 66 and 100a of the Treaty, shall adopt such harmonisation measures as are necessary to ensure that users and the universal service provider(s) have access to the public postal network under conditions which are transparent and non-discriminatory.

However, such restrictions should in principle be applied only to postal items covered by the existing monopolies, should not limit what is already accepted in the Member State concerned, and should be compatible with the principle of non-discriminatory access to the postal network as set out in point 8(b)(vii).

Where new high-speed services are offered the presence of incumbents is nevertheless already strong and they would under the present conditions be able to consolidate their dominant position on this new market as well, owing to their privileged access to end-users through the nationwide existing copper pair networks.

the extent to which the unbundling and tarification requirements contained in this Directive have been successful in ensuring fair and non-discriminatory access to the Community's gas system and equivalent levels of competition, as well as the economic, environmental and social consequences of the opening of the gas market for customers;

Telematic networks in support of the interinstitutional exchange of information, notably:- in facilitation of multilingualism in interinstitutional information exchanges, means of translation workflow management and translation support tools, the sharing/exchanging of multilingual resources, and the organisation of common access to terminology databases;

High-speed access services, when combined with a transmission service that delivers traffic to the new entrant's point of presence, can be attractive, in particular in the early stage of the new entrant's network deployment, in that it allows the new entrant to deliver broadband service to customers in advance of its own network build-out.

A refusal from an incumbent to give access to competitors on its local loop is thus likely to eliminate the possibility for new entrants to compete at all on the nationwide market(10) for the three identified services, and they would be limited to regional and local markets where they succeed in building alternative networks.

A new regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services has been established in accordance with European Parliament and Council Directives 2002/21/EC of 7 March 2002 on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (Framework Directive)(1), 2002/19/EC of 7 March 2002 on access to, and interconnection of, electronic communications networks and associated facilities (Access Directive)(2), 2002/20/EC of 7 March 2002 on the authorisation of electronic communications networks and services (Authorisation Directive)(3) and 2002/22/EC of 7 March 2002 on the universal services and users' rights related to electronic communications networks and services (Universal Service Directive)(4).

The monitoring of the performance of the public-service tasks of the operators referred to in point 4.2 and of open access to the public postal network and, where applicable, the grant of licences or the control of declarations as well as the observance by economic operators of the special or exclusive rights of operators referred to in point 4.2 should be ensured by a body or bodies independent of the latter (32).

Providing access to the local loop to all new entrants will increase the level of competition and technological innovation in the local access network, which will in turn stimulate the competitive provision of a full range of telecommunication services from simple voice telephony to broadband multimedia and high-speed Internet services to the customer.

It is clear, therefore, that in the telecommunications sector there are at least two types of relevant markets to consider - that of a service to be provided to end users and that of access to those facilities necessary to provide that service to end users (information, physical network, etc.).

For example, the Commission will examine the existence of other network providers, if any, in the relevant geographic area to determine whether such alternative infrastructures are sufficiently dense to provide competition to the incumbent's network and the extent to which it would be possible for new access providers to enter the market.

In the case of negotiated access, Member States shall take the necessary measures for natural gas undertakings and eligible customers either inside or outside the territory covered by the interconnected system to be able to negotiate access to storage and linepack, when technically and/or economically necessary for providing efficient access to the system, as well as for the organisation of access to other ancillary services.

creating favourable conditions for the reduction of market fragmentation and for the marketing, distribution and use of European digital content on the global networks to stimulate economic activity and enhance employment prospects, safeguarding cultural diversity, optimising the European heritage and facilitating access to knowledge.

Luxembourg as a Member State with a relatively small rail network does not need to apply until 31 August 2004 the requirement to award to an independent body the functions determining equitable and non-discriminatory access to infrastructure, as provided for in Article 6(3), first subparagraph, in so far as it obliges Member States to establish independent bodies performing the tasks referred to in that Article."