A situation such as this demands that we should not lose sight of the European Union’s longer-term interests in its relations with Russia, for not only are we neighbours with a long shared history behind us, but we are also dependent on one another in many respects, in that we are by far and away Russia’s biggest export market, while it is our principal supplier of energy; no major foreign policy issue in Europe can be resolved without our common consent, and for that we need constant and constructive dialogue within which we can mak ...[+++]e a determined case for our own interests and values, while at the same time having to work towards consensus.

E-mail service providers and other service providers should therefore be able to initiate legal action against spammers, and thus defend the interests of their customers, as part of their own legitimate business interests.

The legitimate interest of suppliers and consumers can be fully satisfied if the distributor subcontracts these services, including the honouring of warranties, free servicing and recall work, to a repairer or to a number of repairers within the distribution system of the supplier within the distributor's authorised area of operation, provided that the same distributor directly owns at least one main after-sales outlet in reasonable proximity to his main sales outlet, so that he can effectively ensure supervision and remain responsible, vis-à-vis the manufacturer, for adequate territorial coverage and for supervision of the other authori ...[+++]sed repairers in his area of operation.

At the GFATM Board Meetings (three so far) the EC has insisted on upholding the previously agreed principles for the GFATM, including a) the Fund is a financing mechanism and should not become a UN body or new international institution; b) the structure should remain 'lean and mean' with no new entities established in country; c) the interests of developing countries are the key determinants for decisions and the poverty focus is non-negotiable; d) decisions should be m ...[+++]ade transparently and on merit rather than through political lobbying and should be based on high-quality proposals; e) the Fund should deliver improved health outcomes while fully taking into account national frameworks and ownership, and building on existing mechanisms - i.e. the Fund is not a 'vertical' instrument; f) monitoring and evaluation indicators and criteria must be well defined and programme and financial accountability clarified before the first disbursements are made.

81. Where a public authority of a Member State chooses to entrust the provision of a service of general interest to a third party, selection of the provider must respect certain rules and principles in order to ensure a level playing field for all providers, public or private, that are potentially capable of providing that service.

It is true that Council Directive 92/44/EEC of 5 June 1992 on the application of open network provision to leased lines, amended by Commission Decision 94/439/EC (8), harmonizes the basic principles regarding the provision of leased lines, but it only harmonizes the conditions of access and use of leased lines. The aim of that Directive is not to remedy the conflict of interest of the telecommunications organizations as infrastruct ...[+++]ure and service providers. It does not impose a structural separation between the telecommunications organizations as providers of leased lines and as service providers. Complaints illustrate that even in Member States which have implemented that Directive, telecommunications organizations still use their control of the access conditions to the network at the expense of their competitors in the services market. Complaints show that telecommunications organizations still apply excessive tariffs and that they use information acquired as infrastructure providers regarding the services planned by their competitors, to target clients in the services market. Directive 92/44/EEC only provides for the principle of cost-orientation and does not prevent telecommunications organizations to use the information acquired as capacity provider as regards subscribers' usage patterns, necessary to target specific groups of users, and on price elasticities of demand in each service market segment and region of the country. The current regulatory framework does not resolve the conflict of interest mentioned above. The most appropriate remedy to this conflict of interest is therefore to allow service providers to use own or third party telecommunications infrastructure to provide their services to the final customers instead of the infrastructure of their main competitor. In its resolution of 22 December 1994 the Council also approved the principle that infrastructure provision should be liberalized.