It is appropriate to provide for more severe penalties where an attack against an information system is committed by a criminal organisation, as defined in Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA of 24 October 2008 on the fight against organised crime (3), where a cyber attack is conducted on a large scale, thus affecting a significant number of information systems, including where it is intended to create a botnet, or where a cyber attack causes serious damage, including where it is carried out through a botnet.

It is appropriate to provide for more severe penalties where an attack against an information system is committed by a criminal organisation, as defined in Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA of 24 October 2008 on the fight against organised crime , where a cyber attack is conducted on a large scale, thus affecting a significant number of information systems, including where it is intended to create a botnet, or where a cyber attack causes serious damage, including where it is carried out through a botnet.

To achieve this, the Council conclusions also called for a high-level mechanism of governance following which a Joint Action and a Thematic Network were launched in the framework respectively of the Health Programme and the ICT Policy Support Programme of the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (hereafter ‘the Joint Action’ and ‘the Thematic Network’).

In particular the Commission will: implement the new Energy Efficiency Plan, and move towards an Eco-innovation Action Plan that pays special attention to SMEs in promoting networking, low carbon technologies and resource efficient innovation; further develop the specific action on environmental and energy experts within the Enterprise Europe Network, whereby specific knowledge transfer on the state of the art methodologies and best practices will be transferred from regions that have advanced experience to those lagging behind; the ...[+++] Enterprise Europe Network will support SMEs in marketing products and services resulting from best practices, in particular low carbon technologies; SME Panels and the SME feedback database of the Enterprise Europe Network will be used to help to improve the quality of environmental legislation, including its implementation.

(18) Information society services span a wide range of economic activities which take place on-line; these activities can, in particular, consist of selling goods on-line; activities such as the delivery of goods as such or the provision of services off-line are not covered; information society services are not solely restricted to services giving rise to on-line contracting but also, in so far as they represent an economic activity, extend to services which are not remunerated by those who receive them, such as those offering on-line information or commercial communications, or those providing tools allowing for search, access and retrieval of data; inf ...[+++]ormation society services also include services consisting of the transmission of information via a communication network, in providing access to a communication network or in hosting information provided by a recipient of the service; television broadcasting within the meaning of Directive EEC/89/552 and radio broadcasting are not information society services because they are not provided at individual request; by contrast, services which are transmitted point to point, such as video-on-demand or the provision of commercial communications by electronic mail are information society services; the use of electronic mail or equivalent individual communications for instance by natural persons acting outside their trade, business or profession including their use for the conclusion of contracts between such persons is not an information society service; the contractual relationship between an employee and his employer is not an information society service; activities which by their very nature cannot be carried out at a distance and by electronic means, such as the statutory auditing of company accounts or medical advice requiring the physical examination of a patient are not information society services.

The Schengen Information System (or the SIS), set up under Title IV of the Convention of 1990 implementing the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 on the gradual abolition of checks at common borders (4)(hereinafter ‘the 1990 Schengen Convention’) and integrated into the framework of the European Union pursuant to the Protocol annexed to the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community, constitutes an electronic network between the Member States and contains, inter alia, data on motor vehicles with a cylinder capacity exceeding 50 cc which have been stolen, misappropriated or lost.