The mechanisms that they can use to ensure that public passenger transport services are provided include the following: the award of exclusive rights to public service operators, the grant of financial compensation to public service operators and the definition of general rules for the operation of public transport which are applicable to all operators.

‘independent operator’ means undertakings other than authorised dealers and repairers which are directly or indirectly involved in the repair and maintenance of motor vehicles, in particular repairers, manufacturers or distributors of repair equipment, tools or spare parts, publishers of technical information, automobile clubs, roadside assistance operators, operators offering inspection and testing services, operators offering training for installers, manufacturers and repairers of equipment for alternative fuel vehicles;

Thus, while customers would in future pay VAT on the value added by the postal services operators, they would no longer pay the "hidden" VAT incurred on the operators' costs.

The objections set out in the Commission suit broadly cover the objections against France made by AFOPT (the French association of private telecommunications operators) and AOST (the association of telecommunications service operators) in spring 1998.

Another trend is the fast evolution of mobile cellular services towards covering the "Mobile Internet" and other mobile multi-media services.

The Council TAKES NOTE that during the same debate the European Parliament signified its agreement to the Commission's interpretation of this text" (iii) Statement re first indent of Article 4, point (c), of the Directive dealing with conditional access to digital television and reading as follows: "Member States shall take all the necessary measures to ensure that the operators of conditional access services, irrespective of the means of transmission, who produce and market access services to digital television services: - offer to all broadcasters, on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory basis, technical services enabling the broa ...[+++]dcasters' digitally-transmitted services to be received by viewers authorized by means of decoders administered by the service operators, and comply with Community competition law, in particular if a dominant position appears; "". The Council and the Commission state that the first indent of Article 4, point (c): - applies to any provider of conditional access services operating on a cable, terrestrial or satellite broadcasting network in relation to broadcasters who have access to that network under the national procedures in force and wish to benefit from that conditional access service; - does not seek to impose an obligation to offer to any broadcaster access for television services to packages or tiers of television services configured and/or administered by the provider, or services involving transparent distribution to subscribers; - only requires Member States to ensure that broadcasters may have access to conditional access services and that the obligation in Article 4, point (c) does not extend to the underlying network.