ABSTRACT
In order for sets of cost-effective, socially acceptable programmes of measures to be developed to achieve and maintain good water status in European Union (EU) States seeking to comply with the Water Framework Directive (WFD), a significant amount of resource-intensive economic analysis work remains to be done. Having completed an initial economic characterisation of an EU Member State, and having consulted with other WFD practitioners that have done the same, it is suggested that the present is an appropriate time to reevaluate and reconsider the explicit and some of the implicit economic reporting requirements of the WFD. In an effort to contribute toward a more uniform and efficient strategy to integrate economics into the programmes of measures throughout the EU, a step-wise approach to a focused and rationed use of WFD-required economic analyses has been developed and is described.
