Zasada zwrotu kosztów usług wodnych i jej znaczenie prawne

The new draft Act on Water Law provides for significant changes to the system for collecting environmental charges for water use. Their aim is, on the one hand, to eliminate the existing exemptions from the charges and, on the other hand, to increase their rates for those entities that already incur them. The changes to be introduced are justified by the need to ensure that the principle of recovery of the costs of water services, provided for in Article 9 of Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy, is fully taken into account. Since the principle has not been extensively analysed in the Polish legal literature, the article addresses closely the directions of its interpretations presented in German science. Most of them refer to the dispute between two authors: Herwig Unnerstall and Süleyman Kolcu. In its conclusion, the provisions of the draft Act concerning this principle are assessed on a preliminary basis and the discerned legislative deficiencies are indicated.