Even though Europol’s director, Mr Ratzel, wrote a letter to make the facts plain – namely that Europol is of course not a secret service and cannot exercise a coordinating role over the services in Europe, and that, of course, no liaison officer from an American secret service department has ever worked there – the factually incorrect account remains in the report.

The exclusion from the scope of this Directive as regards matters of electronic communications services as covered by Directives 2002/19/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on access to, and interconnection of, electronic communications networks and associated facilities (Access Directive) , 2002/20/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on the authorisation of electronic communications networks and services (Authorisation Directive) , 2002/21/EC of the European Parliament and of ...[+++]the Council of 7 March 2002 on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (Framework Directive) , 2002/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on universal service and users' rights relating to electronic communications networks and services (Universal Service Directive) and 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications) should apply not only to questions specifically dealt with in these Directives but also to matters for which the Directives explicitly leave to Member States the possibility of adopting certain measures at national level.

This point of view is reinforced by the fact that, in its ‘Guidelines on market analysis and the assessment of significant market power under the Community regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services’, the Commission states that relevant markets will always be assessed on a forward-looking basis, as the NRA will include in its assessment an appreciation of the future development of the market. ‘The starting point for carrying out a market analysis (.) is not the existence of an agreement or concerted practice (.) nor a concentration, nor an alleged abuse of dominance, but is based on an overall forward-lookin ...[+++]g assessment of the structure and the functioning of the market under examination’.

(c) "electronic communications service" means a service normally provided for remuneration which consists wholly or mainly in the conveyance of signals on electronic communications networks, including telecommunications services and transmission services in networks used for broadcasting, but exclude services providing, or exercising editorial control over, content transmitted using electronic communications networks and services; it does not include informa ...[+++]tion society services, as defined in Article 1 of Directive 98/34/EC, which do not consist wholly or mainly in the conveyance of signals on electronic communications networks.

(c)‘electronic communications service’ means a service normally provided for remuneration which consists wholly or mainly in the conveyance of signals on electronic communications networks, including telecommunications services and transmission services in networks used for broadcasting, but exclude services providing, or exercising editorial control over, content transmitted using electronic communications networks and services; it does not include informa ...[+++]tion society services, as defined in Article 1 of Directive 98/34/EC, which do not consist wholly or mainly in the conveyance of signals on electronic communications networks.

First, the Agency’s headquarters would be established in Thessaloniki and a joint declaration would be drawn up listing the general service departments to be located there.