Moritz Reese

Cost Recovery and Water Pricing in Water Services and Water Uses in Germany

Article 9 of the Water Framework Directive requires Member States to take account of the cost recovery principle with regard to “water services” and to provide, by water pricing policies, adequate economic incentives for an efficient and environmentally sound water usage. This contribution exposes the interpretation and implementation of Article 9 WFD in Germany. It shows that a stringent cost recovery approach is applied to classic water supply and that an incentivizing pricing instrument is implemented by most German States in the form of a water abstraction levy. However, this levy is not applied in all Stats and those applying it are making considerable exemptions for important water using industries. It is concluded that this is barely in line with Article 9 WFD.

Sustainable Urban Water Governance – Main Aims, Challenges and Institutional Approaches in Germany and Beyond

In the pursuit of a liveable urban environment, water infrastructures have always played an essential role. The development of safe sewage and drinking water supply systems since the mid-nineteenth century has ended the ages of severe pestilence and created the hygienic preconditions for the exponential growth of cities in the decades of industrialization and urbanization. In the future quest for sustainable urban transformation, too, water infrastructures will remain an essential factor, even though the factual challenges have changed and transformation of the historic infrastructure systems seems to be necessary, in multiple regards: In many cities around the globe, water infrastructures are facing major challenges. Demographic change, climate change, aging infrastructure, and more stringent water pollution control standards are placing the “blue infrastructure” under pressure. Scenarios involving re-orientation and system transformation – e.g., shifting the emphasis towards semi-central and closed-loop technologies – are being discussed (see, e.g., the contribution of Nivala et al. Chap. 9, in this volume). In this context, there is also a growing focus on the governance of urban water infrastructures, and it is questioned whether existing laws and organizational settings are adequate for meeting the above-mentioned challenges.

Public Waste Management Services in the Internal Market – and the Interpretation of Article 106 TFEU

A matter of current dispute in the German waste-management sector is the extent to which it is permissible under EU law to restrict the market for the recovery of household waste in favour of public providers of disposal services, as is common practice in many member states. This dispute raises fundamental questions as to the relationship between the public provision of services of general interest and European competition and so concerns, in particular, the relevant rules under Article 106 TFEU. In adopting this article, the parties to the Treaty have—as will be shown below—reserved considerable freedom to exempt public services of general interest from competition and the free movement of goods. Whilst their freedom to do so may be limited under secondary legislation providing for an EU-wide competition solution, such legislation must take the form of a targeted liberalisation measure which also lays down the accompanying rules needed to guarantee a universal, reliable and affordable provision of services. The secondary EU waste legislation does not meet this requirement.