This ecotax on water abstraction (mostly on groundwater, but also on surface water, e.g. in the case of France) tries to internalize environmental and social costs, but the level of environmental cost recovery is quite low as seen from the first reports presented by the EU member states reporting on WFD implementation. The Spanish government is debating whether to charge an ecotax on all water use (both surface water and groundwater) to contribute to global integrated resource management at the basin level and meet the 2010 deadline set by the WFD for implementation of measures including water pricing. Provisional estimates for this ecotax (EUR 1.00/1000 m3) make it a ‘political contribution of users’ rather than an environmental cost recovery charge.