The regulation of water services in the EU

Intereconomics

Volumn 48, Issue 3, 2013, Pages 136-158

  Boscheck, Ralf ^a   Clifton, Judith C ^b   Díaz Fuentes, Daniel ^b   Oelmann, Mark ^c   Czichy, Christoph ^c   Alessi, Monica ^d   Treyer, Sébastien ^e   Wright, Janet ^f   Cave, Martin ^g  

^a IMD   (Switzerland)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CANTABRIA   (Spain)

^c Hochschule Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences   (Germany)

^d Centre of European Policy Studies (CEPS)   (Belgium)

^e SCIENCES PO   (France)

^f Sladen Wright Associates Ltd   (United Kingdom)

^g IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84878748767     PISSN: 00205346     EISSN: 1613964X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s10272-013-0456-9     Document Type: Article

References (79)

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2. See http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/barnier/docs/news/2013/130124_water-services_en.pdf
3. See http://corporateeurope.org/blog/battle-keep-water-out-internal-market-test-case-democracyeurope
4. See http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/barnier/docs/news/2013/130124_water-services_en.pdf
5. European Commission 2011
6. op. cit., p. 13
7. Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour, http://akeuropa.eu/en/water-supply-waste-disposal-and-co.-concession-directive-shall-now-be-waved-through-at-high-speed.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=1588
8. For a discussion, see R. Boscheck: European Water Infrastructure: Regulatory Flux void of Reference?, in: Intereconomics, Vol. 37, No. 3, 2002, pp. 138-149.
9. See R. Boscheck, op. cit. For a review of the literature
10. See R. Boscheck: The EU Water Framework Directive, in: Intereconomics, Vol. 41, No. 5, 2006, pp. 268-271.
11. D.J. Rodriguez, C. van den Berg, A. McMahon: Investing in Water Infrastructure: Capital, Operations and Maintenance, World Bank, Washington DC 2012.
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24. OECD: Competition Policy and Concessions, Policy Brief, Paris, May 2007.
25. European Commission: Proposal for a Directive... op. cit., p. 2.
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29. A concept originally developed by 1991 Nobel Prize winner in Economics Ronald Coase and then developed by Oliver Williamson.
30. D. Sappington, J. Stiglitz: Privatization, information and incentives, in: Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 6, No. 4, 1987, pp. 567-585.
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38. European Commission: Impact Assessment of an Initiative on... op. cit., Annex III.
39. See D. Bös, W. Peters: Privatization, internal control, and internal regulation, in: Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 36, No. 2, 1988, pp. 231-258.
40. In practice, we sometimes observe the opposite: Supervisory boards do not allow companies to increase prices due to e.g. upcoming elections. In such circumstances, there are water supply companies (in Germany, anyway) which are forced to abandon investments and thus supply a quality which is too low.
41. See Commission of the European Communities: White Paper on services of general interest, Brussels 2004, pp. 4-5.
42. See M. Oelmann: Anreizwirkungen von Benchmarkingsystemen - Implikationen für die Überzeugungskraft des deutschen Weges in der Wasserwirtschaft, in: P. Haug, M.T.W. Rosenfeld (eds.): Die Rolle der Kommunen in der Wasserwirtschaft, Hallesches Kolloquium zur Kommunalen Wirtschaft 2005, Schriften des Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle, Vol. 25, Nomos-Verlag, Baden-Baden 2007, pp. 47-69.
43. See E. Gawel: Entgeltkontrolle in der Wasserwirtschaft zwischen Wettbewerbsrecht und Kommunalabgabenrecht - eine komparative Leistungsfähigkeitsanalyse, in: Zeitschrift für Wasserrecht, Vol. 52, No. 1, 2013, pp. 13-35.
44. Deutscher Bundestag: Bericht der Bundesregierung zur Modernisierungsstrategie für die deutsche Wasserwirtschaft und für ein stärkeres internationales Engagement der deutschen Wasserwirtschaft, Berlin 2006, Drucksache 16/1094
45. Modernisierungsstrategie, adopted by the German Bundestag on 21 March 2002 (Plenary Protocol 14/227).
46. See BDEW (The German Association of Energy and Water Industries): Benchmarking: "Learning from the best" - Comparison of performance indicators in the German water industry, Berlin 2010, pp. 2-5.
47. See VEWIN: Refl ections on Performance 2009 - Benchmarking in the Dutch drinking water industry, 2010.
48. See Ofwat: Setting price controls for 2015-20 - framework and approach, A consultation, January 2013.
49. See B. Barraqué, C. Le Bris: Water Sector Regulation in France, in: Journal for Institutional Comparisons, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2007, pp. 4-12.
50. European Commission: Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the award of concession contracts, 2011/0437 (COD), 20 December 2012.
51. Rat der Stadt Wuppertal, Sitzungsvorlage, 18 February 2013, http://www.wuppertal.de/rathaus/onlinedienste/ris/vo0050.php?__kvonr=14426&voselect=8210
52. Westdeutsche Zeitung, 5 March 2013, http://www.wz-newsline.de/lokales/wuppertal/wasserversorgungliegt-ab-mai-wieder-in-der-hand-der-stadt-1.1257488.
53. European Environment Agency: Towards Efficient Use of Water Resources in Europe, EEA Report No. 1/2012, Copenhagen.
54. European Commission: A Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources - Communication from the Commission, COM (2012) 673.
55. C. Egenhofer, M. Alessi, J. Teuch, J. Núñez Ferrer: Which economic model for a water-efficient Europe?, Report of a CEPS Task Force, Chaired by S. Treyer, CEPS, Brussels, November 2012.
56. European Environment Agency, op. cit.
57. European Economic and Social Committee: Opinion on the integration of water policy into other EU policies, NAT 425, Brussels 2011
58. EPI Water: WP3 EX-POST Case studies: Voluntary intersectoral water transfer at Llobregat River Basin, EU FP7 project, Deliverable No. D3.1 - Review reports, 15 December 2011.
59. EPI Water: Review Reports, EU FP7 project, Deliverable No. D 3.1 and D 6.1, 20 December 2011.
60. The many transaction costs encountered in Australia are documented by P. Martin, J. Williams, C. Stone: Transaction costs and water reform: The devils hiding in the details, CRC for Irrigation Futures, University of New England, Armindale, NSW, September 2008, who give a comprehensive picture of the challenges involved.
61. Public networks typically supply households, services, public buildings, small businesses and sometimes industry. In many cases, however, industry has different water abstraction rights.
62. European Commission: Third Follow-up Report to the Communication on water scarcity and droughts in the European Union, COM(2007) 414 final, COM(2011) 133 final, Brussels, 21 March 2011.
63. Ofwat: Water Supply and Demand Policy, November 2008; Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Water for Life, HM Government, London 2011.
64. European Environment Agency: Water resources across Europe - confronting water scarcity and drought, EEA Report No. 2/2009, Copenhagen; EEA: Towards Efficient..., op. cit
65. Walker: The Independent Review of Charging for Household Water and Sewerage Services, Final report for the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, December 2009.
66. R.Q. Grafton, M.B. Ward, H. To, T. Kompas: Determinants of residential water consumption: evidence and analysis from a 10-country household survey, Water Resources Research, Vol. 47, No. W08537, 2011.
67. European Environment Agency: Water resources..., op. cit.
68. Arcadis, Intersus, Fresh Thoughts Consulting, Ecologic and TYPSA: The role of water pricing and water allocation in agriculture in delivering sustainable water use in Europe, Final Report, European Commission, Project number 11589, February 2012.
69. European Environment Agency: Water resources..., op. cit.
70. Industry commonly pays for water self-abstraction either by means of volumetric pricing or based on a flat or variable rate, e.g. calculated according to the area of industrial real estate; see S. Boegart: Water use in agriculture and industry: What experience with water efficiency and pricing?, Presentation at CEPS Task Force meeting, 5 March 2012, http://www.ceps.eu/files/SBogaert_ARCADIS5032012.pdf. OECD experience shows that the prices rarely reflect water scarcity and are generally rather low.
71. The water companies in Scotland and Northern Ireland are in public ownership.
72. There are ten large water and sewerage companies in England and Wales and ten smaller water-only companies, whose customers get their sewerage services form the larger companies.
73. T. Ballance, A. Taylor: Competition and Economic Regulation in Water: The Future of the European Water Industry, London 2004, IWA Publishing.
74. Retail activities in the water sector normally include marketing (if any), billing and meter reading. They account for up to ten per cent of value added. Upstream activities (abstraction, treatment and distribution) account for the remainder.
75. M. Cave: Independent Review of Competition and Innovation in Water Markets, 2009, available at http://www.defra.gov.uk/publications/fi les/cave-review-final-report.pdf.
76. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Water for Life, CM 8230, available at http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm82/8230/8230.pdf.
77. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Draft Water Bill, Cm 8375, July 2012.
78. House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee: Draft Water Bill, January 2013, available at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmenvfru/674/674.pdf.
79. For reasons of space, we omit discussion of how the construction of new delivery networks might be made contestable.