When are energy/water consumption specs important in regards to the price?
You have to look at the assumptions they make when determining the annual energy and water consumption. It could be 2 loads of laundry a week, or it could be 2 a day. Without knowing that, you don't know if you do more or less than their assumption, and thus whether you'd use more or less energy / water each year.

For example, in the US, Energy Star washers have a label which indicates (or similar):


  • Estimated operating cost based on six wash loads a week and a national average
   electricity cost of 12 cents per kWh and natural gas cost of $1.09 per therm


So, it makes it very easy to compare the calculated annual energy cost to your expected energy cost, as you can calculate the energy usage per load. You can do the same with water usage.

If you can't find information about the assumptions made, you could use the one given by Energy Star above as a starting point. For example, I pay 10 cents per kWh of electricity and 80 cents per hundred gallons of water. Total difference in operating costs is less than $4 / year, which means it'd take about 40 years for me to break even on the more expensive but more efficient one (148 euros ~ $175).

Even using the washer 10 times as much as what Energy Star considers average (6 loads per week), it'd still take me about 4 years to break even. And, if I'm doing 60 loads of laundry a week, I better get a bigger washer. So, in this case, there is no practical difference in running costs. If you had one washer using 200 kWh per year and another using 500 kWh per year, or if you pay a lot more for electricity / water, then you'd have a more significant difference.