Brussels, 19/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - After all sorts of ups and downs, the Commission has finally approved, with no objections, Poland's new national greenhouse gas emissions allocation plan (NAP) for 2008-2012, the second trading period of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) (Directive 2003/87/EC). The news was announced on Monday 19 April. The plan maintains the total amount of allowances at 208.5 million tonnes per year. The only change to the earlier NAP concerns some technical rules governing the reserve of allowances not allocated to companies.
In a press release, Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard welcomes the new NAP which is “consistent with the methodology used for all other member states” and says that it “has removed uncertainty for Polish companies and most importantly maintains the environmental integrity of the EU Emissions Trading System. I much appreciate the commitment of Minister Andrzej Kraszewski and his team in reaching this mutually satisfactory outcome”.
The new plan was submitted by Warsaw on 9 April, following the Commission's rejection of the original NAP, which it felt was too generous (it planned to allocate 284 million tonnes per year). Poland referred the matter to the Court of Justice and won its case. On 23 September 2009, the Court of First Instance annulled the Commission's first decision on the grounds that it had exceeded its powers in demanding that Poland (and, indeed, Estonia) reduce the level of quotas proposed before the NAP could be approved (see EUROPE 9985 and 10038). The Commission lodged an appeal which is still pending. “We will decide at a later date whether or not to withdraw our appeal,” Maria Kokkonen, Hedegaard's spokeswoman, told press. (A.N./transl.rt)