For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions apply:

(1) "critical entity" means a public or private entity which has been identified by a Member State in accordance with Article 6 as belonging to one of the categories set out in the third column of the table in the Annex;

(2) "resilience" means a critical entity's ability to prevent, protect against, respond to, resist, mitigate, absorb, accommodate and recover from an incident;

(3) "incident" means an event which has the potential to significantly disrupt, or that disrupts, the provision of an essential service, including when it affects the national systems that safeguard the rule of law;

(4) "critical infrastructure" means an asset, a facility, equipment, a network or a system, or a part of an asset, a facility, equipment, a network or a system, which is necessary for the provision of an essential service;

(5) "essential service" means a service which is crucial for the maintenance of vital societal functions, economic activities, public health and safety, or the environment;