Water tariffs in Europe
This report is an analysis of water tariffs in Europe. The analysis is carried out throughout Europe, among WAREG Members and represents an essential tool to understand water tariffs.
WAREG the European Association of Water Regulators
WAREG is the Association of European Regulators in the drinking water and wastewater sector. Currently, WAREG has 25 Members and 5 Observers from all around Europe. WAREG’s mission is to facilitate proactive cooperation, knowledge and capacity-building among its Members by highlighting the advantages of economic regulation at the national and regional levels. Furthermore, any national or regional Authority with economic competencies in the WSS sector can apply to become Member or Observer.
Water Tariffs regulatory frameworks in Europe
Throughout Europe, different competent authorities approve water and sanitation services (WSS) tariffs. The list includes local municipalities, regional governments and regional regulators, national ministries and national regulators. A summary of available surveys in the water tariff process, as well as tariff regulation in the energy sector in the European Union (EU) is provided in the introduction of this report. Also, brief information on existing tariff setting methods is in the introduction of the report.
The paper analyses the tariff setting approaches for WSS among WAREG Member countries including
- the tariff methods used
- the scope of services
- the regulatory periods and tariff updates
- the tariff structures
- tariff blocks based on consumption
- tariff components
- approaches to determine and calculate operational costs (OPEX), capital costs (CAPEX) and investment accounting, regulatory asset base (RAB) including accounting and depreciation norms, calculation of weighted average cost of capital (WACC) and demand.
If you want to discover more about water governance have a look at our 2021 report on water regulatory governance in Europe
If you want to discover more about specific tariffs worldwide have a look at the IBNET database