The Commission could and should consider links between the Foundation and other more minor Euro-Mediterranean satellite cultural centres located throughout the area, which can equally spread the same messages of friendship, mutual understanding and peace among the peoples of the Euro-Mediterranean region, and which serve as cultural, research and training centres, including for the many immigrants in that area.

Mutual understanding and co-operation between the EU and the private sector is vital to ensure positive developments in the satellite communications sector and the Satellite Action Plan remains a key tool for this today.

Partnership for Peace was a scheme to create affiliate states of NATO by bilateral agreements by which 27 or more European states, including Russia and its former satellites, could equally engage in intensive steps of co-ordination including joint military exercises, active exchanges between ambassadors within the NATO context, education and increased awareness of NATO standards, active discussion of mutual political, strategic and military problems, and participation with NATO in peacekeeping missions such as Bosnia.

In order to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Agreement, cooperation between both Parties over controls has been established and strengthened by defining a specific status for a team of scientific observers, adopting a system of reciprocal observation of land-based controls in a port for each Party and through a scheme for the continuous location of fishing vessels by satellite, to be worked out in the course of implementation of the Agreement.

12. Where the number of undertakings authorized to provide satellite telecommunications services is limited by a Member State through special rights, and a fortiori exclusive rights, these constitute restrictions that could be incompatible with Article 59 of the Treaty, whenever such limitation is not justified by essential requirements, since these rights prevent other undertakings from supplying (or obtaining) the services concerned to (or from) other Member States. In the case of satellite network services, such essential requirements could be the effective use of the frequency spectrum and the avoidance of harmful interference betwee ...[+++]n satellite telecommunications systems a other space-based or terrestrial technical systems. Consequently, provided that equipment used to offer the services satisfies the essential requirement applicable to satellite communications, separate legal treatment of the latter is not justified. On the other hand, special rights consisting only in special legal or regulatory advantages, do not, in principle, preclude other undertakings from entering the market. The compatibility of these rights with the EC Treaty must therefore be assessed on a case-by-case basis, regard being had to their impact on the effective freedom of other entities to provide the same telecommunications service and their possible justifications regarding the activity concerned.

The scheme is furthermore flexible as concerns the transition from the current practice of individual licences towards the full mututal recognition regime for classes of satellite services.