La récupération des coûts : l'évaluation des circuits financiers en Ile-de-France

Cost-recovery analysis for the Water Framework Directive : assessing economic circulation in Ile de France region

¹ Agence de l'Eau Seine-Normandie Chargée d'études prospectives, pôle Evaluation et Prospective, Direction des Etudes, de la Prospective et de l'Evaluation Environnementales
² Ingénieur - Elève de l'ENPC, diplômée du DEA Economie de l'Environnement et des Ressources Naturelle, ENGREF
³ Responsable du pôle Evaluation et Prospective, Direction des Etudes, de la Prospective et de l'Evaluation Environnementales

Auteurs de correspondance : blanc.stephanie@aesn.fr laurans.yann@aesn.fr

Abstract

Analysing the Water Framework Directive's "cost-recovery" of water pricing is indeed triggering an ambitious "programme" for economic analysis of water policy. The very first step of this programme should be the assessment of financial circulation between the major economic agents of the water economic system. Because they are supposed to hinder cost internalisation, subsidies to water services from the State and other non-water fiscal resources will have to be measured. Their suppression is not mandatory, but Member States will have to justify their existence and their harmlessness for competition on private activities. Public funding that is "external" to the water economic system is to be made explicit. This task has been experienced on the Ile-de-France region, the most populated region of the Seine-Normandy basin (10 M inhabitants). Some results appear on methods for cost-recovery evaluation : evaluations will have to elaborate further on the very simple and heterogeneous categories that are written in the Water Framework Directive for cost-recovery analysis. For example, "households, industries and agriculture" are to be taken on the one hand as water consumers, and on the other hand as taxpayers. Storm-water equipment and financing are also raising important disturbances in the calculations, being "water" issues but not based on water consumption and not submitted to water pricing. The measurement of the subsidy / water pricing ratio gives a lower result than what was ordinarily considered in France. Ile-de-France is a region that is known to be more active in water subsidising than other French regions. Nevertheless, cumulated public subsidies to the water services that are "external" to the water payment system are shown to be under 8 % of water pricing.