Comparative study of practices in Europe regarding the application of article 9 of the ater frameork directive relating to cost recovery[Etude comparative des pratiques en Europe relatives à l'application de l'article 9 de la DCE en matière de récupération des coûts des services liés à l’utilisation de l’eau]

Article 9 of Water Framework Directive asks Member states to ensure that the different economic sectors take into account the principle of recovery of the costs of water services, including environmental and resource costs. A comparative study related to practices in France, Italy, Ireland, Poland and Netherlands has been conducted. One can observe a large diversity of approaches on the following points: •Definition of water services; •Tariff structure; •The system of tax and levies to take into account the environmental costs and resource costs of different water uses; •Methods used for the calculation of the level of cost recovery; •The cost transfers from one user to another or from users to the taxpayers. For households and industrial users, it seems that revenues cover most of the operating and investment costs. Agriculture, however, does not cover its costs, in particular investment, except for the Netherlands where the reported average recovery rate for all uses of water is 99%. Apart from a few exceptions in France, taking into account environmental costs and the costs of the resource is a task that should be developed.