(1)

Directive (EU) 2022/2557 aims at ensuring that services essential for the maintenance of vital societal functions or economic activities are provided in an unobstructed manner in the internal market and that the resilience of critical entities providing such services is enhanced.

(2)

For that purpose and pursuant to Article 5(1) of Directive (EU) 2022/2557, the Commission is empowered to adopt a delegated act establishing a non-exhaustive list of essential services in the sectors and subsectors set out in the Annex to that Directive. The list is to be used by the competent authorities for the purpose of carrying out a risk assessment and thereafter the risk assessment is to be used for the purpose of identifying critical entities.

(3)

The list of essential services should be drawn up in a generic way, in order to accommodate Member States’ specificities such as size, population density, or geographic location. However, it should cover the essential services only of the categories of entities set out in the Annex to Directive (EU) 2022/2557. To that effect, only services provided by entities falling within those categories should be considered as essential services, as defined in Article 2, point (5), of Directive (EU) 2022/2557.

(4)

More generally, the list of essential services should be used in the light of all the relevant provisions of Directive (EU) 2022/2557. This includes the definition of essential services as services that are crucial for the maintenance of vital societal functions, economic activities, public health and safety, or the environment, as well as the definition of a public administration entity and the provisions on that Directive’s scope. Pursuant to Article 1(6) of Directive (EU) 2022/2557, public administration entities that carry out their activities in the areas of national security, public security, defence or law enforcement, including investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences are excluded.

(5)

Consequently, the economic activities listed, on a non-exhaustive basis, in this delegated Regulation, should only be considered essential services, for the purpose of this delegated Regulation and Directive (EU) 2022/2557, where they qualify as essential services as defined in that Directive,

(1)

energy sector:

(2)

transport sector:

(3)

banking sector:

(4)

financial market infrastructure sector:

(5)

health sector:

(6)

drinking water sector: drinking water supply and drinking water distribution excluding distribution of water for human consumption where that service is a non-essential part of the general activity of distributors distributing other commodities and goods (suppliers and distributors of water intended for human consumption);

(7)

waste water sector: waste water collection, treatment and disposal excluding collecting, disposing of or treating urban waste water, domestic waste water or industrial waste water where they are not an essential part of the general activities of undertakings (undertakings collecting, disposing of or treating urban waste water, domestic waste water and industrial waste water);

(8)

digital infrastructure sector:

(9)

public administration sector: services provided by public administration entities within the meaning of Article 2, point (10), of Directive (EU) 2022/2557, of central governments as defined by Member States in accordance with national law (public administration entities of central governments);

(10)

space sector: operation of ground-based infrastructure owned, managed and operated by Member States or by private parties that support the provision of space-based services, excluding providers of public electronic communication networks (operators of ground-based infrastructure);

(11)

production, processing and distribution of food sector (food businesses which are engaged exclusively in logistics and wholesale distribution and large scale industrial production and processing):