Environmental and Resource Costs under Article 9 of the Water Framework Directive

A. Problem Statement

B. 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 Conclusion

D. Position of Environmental and Resource Costs in the Norm Architecture of Article 9

Definition 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 Conclusion

E. 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 Conclusion

F. 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 ERCs

G. Instruments for ERC Accounting

The Question of Instrument to Comply with Article 9 WFD - Efficient Resource Use. An Equivalent Case for Command-and-control Policies? - Interim Conclusion

H. Conclusions

List of References

Subject Index

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.