Brussels, 10/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - On 4 May, the European Commission submitted proposals to member states with a view to changing the rules governing the registry infrastructure for online transactions, which underpin the EU greenhouse gas emissions trading system (EU ETS, established by Directive 2003/87/EC and amended by Directive 2009/29/EC).
Some of the Commission's proposals aim to allow implementation of ETS changes as set out in the legislation for the third period of the system's implementation beyond 2013, such as the establishment of a single EU registry to replace national registries from 1 January 2013 (an innovation foreseen in Article 19 of Directive 2003/87/EC). These proposals also answer the need to urgently adopt a new regulation in order to clarify the fact that, given that there is currently no international agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol after the first period of commitments and applying to member states after the end of 2012, emission quotas in the civil aviation sector will be put up for auction in the EU from 1 January 2012 in the same way as emissions quotas for other sectors. The draft Commission regulation above all provides for the single EU registry to be managed by the central administrator and for it to be up to member states to ensure data precision in respect of emissions quotas allocated. The EU registry should be in line with the technical and functional specifications for data exchange standards for registry systems under the Kyoto Protocol. Transactions within the EU would be made via an EU transaction log (EUTL), while transactions on Kyoto units would be carried out via the EUTL and also via the registry for international transactions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Other proposals concern new measures aimed at strengthening the integrity and security of current national registries, which are at high risk from repeated cyber attacks, and those of the future single EU registry.
The Commission also held a workshop on the same day with all stakeholders, relating to regulatory surveillance and the integrity of the European carbon market to determine whether or not it is appropriate to legislate in this respect. (A.N./transl.jl)