On behalf of the European Environment Agency (EEA), Ecologic and Stefan Speck jointly support two projects on the 'Analysis of national waste policies being implemented in the context of landfill and incineration directives' and on the 'use of economic instruments in policies addressing resource use'. Both of these projects build on precursor studies by the EEA which have assessed ex-post the effectiveness of waste water policies and the effectiveness of packaging waste management systems. Ecologic and Stefan Speck will contribute advice in the area of economic instruments and ex-post cost effectiveness methodologies. This project is conducted under the framework contract on European Environmental Economic Activities (3EA).

Both projects provide an overview on the use of economic instruments in the implementation of environmental Directives by EU Member States, and to further develop and refine a methodology for ex-post assessments.

The first project deals with the policies and measures adopted by EU Member States in order to implement the landfill and incineration Directives. These choice of instruments for implementing these policies differs widely among the Member States, ranging from economic, market-based instruments such as landfill taxes and tradable allowance schemes, to regulatory command-and-control-type instruments, such as a ban of landfilling combustible waste.

The second project focuses on the use of economic instruments in policies addressing resource use. In co-operation with Ecologic, Stefan Speck will provide technical support and policy advise to the EEA regarding the ex-post evaluation of specific economic instruments in terms of their efficiency and cost-effectiveness. This is mainly done through a review of relevant documents as well as participation and presentations during experts workshops.