Brussels, 18/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has adopted a Communication that defines a "method for assessing" the quality of economic services of a general interest, for the attention of the Seville Summit. As announced in detail (see EUROPE of 7 June, p.9), this method forms part of three documents requested of the Commission at the Barcelona Summit, in the context of the debates on the liberalisation of networking industries. The Commission has yet to present the two proposals most awaited by France and Germany: guidelines of State aid to services of a general interest and a framework directive setting out how the principles of Article 16 of the Amsterdam Treaty on the smooth running of these services are to be implemented. To do so, the Commission is waiting for the rulings of the European Court of Justice on the Altmark Trans and Gemo cases, that could alter current case law. Assessment will initially concern postal services, telecommunications, electricity, air transport, railways, but could be extended to other sectors. It will focus on: 1) assessment of competition and the supply and demand structure; 2) assessment of performances in terms of price and quality, notably; 3) the perception of these changes by users. An initial report should be presented in the autumn of 2003. The Commissioner for the Internal Market, Frits Bolkestein considered that the Communication "will help us determine which way the provision of these services gives the best results and to spread good practice". The Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Pedro Solbes, assured that the "fact of regularly having a rigorous assessment will enable those responsible to take decisions perfectly serving the European Union's economic and social goals". The document is available on the site: http: //europa.eu.int/economy_finance/pubications/structuralpolicies_en.htm ).