Environmental and Resource Costs under Article 9 of the Water Framework Directive.: Challenges for the Implementation of the Principle of Cost ... (Studien zu Umweltökonomie und Umweltpolitik)

Erik Gawel is Full Professor of Economics, esp. Institutional Environmental Economics, Director of the Institute for Infrastructure and Resource Management (University of Leipzig) and Head of the Department of Economics at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ (Leipzig). Furthermore, he serves as a Publicly Certified Expert for Public Cost Accounting. As such, he is consultant to several German local authorities, municipal supplier and public enterprises with respect to water and waste water pricing and management as well as forensic expert for water and waste water pricing. His scientific research fields comprise, inter alia, public finance aspects of water policy, particularly economic instruments (water tariffs and charges), cost accounting for water pricing and new institutional economics of water resources (political economy of water resources management, water law and economics). He has conducted numerous interdisciplinary studies on water policy issues in Germany, the EU as well as at the international level and is, as an economist, also considered an excellent connoisseur of water law. Outstanding expertise in the field of water pricing has made Erik Gawel one of Germany's leading and most recognised experts.

Article 9 of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires Member States to take account of the principle of recovery of the costs of water services, including environmental and resource costs (ERC). Whilst Member States in practice claim discretion when applying Article 9, there is, however, an ongoing discussion of what is, in concrete terms, meant by and due for recovering full costs in European water policy. To make matters worse, in its judgement of 2014, the EU Court of Justice abstained from clarifying pestering problems of interpreting the legal requirements. What is more, this debate still lacks insights from decades of scientific discussion on water pricing in environmental economics. Therefore, the book provides a current in-depth analysis of all related questions of recovering the costs (ERC definition, concepts and instruments of cost recovery etc.), referring to both the legal as well as the economic aspects of pricing water services in line with Article 9 of the WFD.

Article 9 of the EU Water Framework Directive requires Member States to take account of the principle of recovery of the costs of water services, including environmental and resource costs (ERC). However, there is an ongoing discussion of what is, in concrete terms, meant by and due for recovering full costs in water policy. Therefore, the book provides an in-depth analysis of all related questions of recovering the costs referring to both the legal as well as the economic discussion of pricing water services.

A. Problem StatementB. The Term »Environmental and Resource Costs«C. The Term »Water Services«Problem Statement and State of the Debate - Proceedings Before the European Court of Justice in 2014 - Is a Narrow Definition of »Water Services» Necessary to Limit Harm from Cost Recovery? - Interim ConclusionD. Position of Environmental and Resource Costs in the Norm Architecture of Article 9Definition of the Problem - Legal Interpretations of the Norm Architecture - »Efficient Use of Resources« as a Key Term - Relevant and Irrelevant Environmental and Resource Costs - Interim ConclusionE. Environmental and Resource Costs as a Component of Cost Recovery: Which Costs Are to Be Recovered?Principle of the Purpose Relatedness of the Costs - The Cost-related Purpose of Article 9 of the WFD - Extent of ERCs. Dependant on Both Water Status and Function of Cost Recovery - Reference to Water Status as a Recovery Concept: Achievement of Environmental Objectives According to Article 4 WFD as an Abolishment Threshold? - Interim ConclusionF. Concepts for »Taking Account« of ERCs: How Should These Costs Be Recovered?Interpretation Efforts in the Legal Literature: »Taking Account« as an Obligation Problem - Taking Account as a Calculation Problem - Approximation of Environmental and Resource Costs by Means of the Costs of the Measures? - Concepts for »Taking into Account« Provided by the Economic Theory of Environmental Policy - Nine Arguments Against Focusing on Calculating Environmental and Resource Costs - On the Critique of Decisionist Approaches to »Taking Account« of ERCsG. Instruments for ERC AccountingThe Question of Instrument to Comply with Article 9 WFD - Efficient Resource Use. An Equivalent Case for Command-and-control Policies? - Interim ConclusionH. ConclusionsList of ReferencesSubject Index