Brussels, 07/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission approved 8 national plans for the allocation of greenhouse gas emissions quotas, which had been submitted by the Member States and examined in the available three months. At the same time, however, it has decided to open infringement proceedings against Italy and Greece, which were both supposed to have notified their plan by the cut-off date of 31 March like the rest of the old Member States, but had still not done so as of 7 July. These countries will receive a letter of formal notice, calling upon them to justify this failure to fulfil an obligation under directive 2003/87/EC, which will, on 1 January 2005, set up a Community system of tradable greenhouse gas emission rights between European enterprises (starting with CO2).
Many of the old Member States missed the 31 March deadline, and took advantage of the period of grace granted to them by the Commission. They recently had to knuckle down to avoid the infringement proceedings threatened by the Environment Commissioner, Margot Wallström, in May. Of the eight approved plans, only five were approved without reservation: those of Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Slovenia. The three others- Austria, Germany and the United Kingdom- were approved under reservation of technical amendments the governments are to make. The national quota allocation plans indicate the quantity of CO2 emissions the Member States plan to allocate (5% by auction, the rest for free) for the trading period 2005-2007 and their distribution between industrial plants which consume a lot of energy, and which are covered by the directive. The examination of the plans was carried out bearing in mind criticism levelled by the directive, foremost among which concerned the integration of the plan into the general national strategy of each Member State on the reduction of greenhouse gases, which it took on under the Kyoto Protocol. The flexible mechanism of pollution licences, will add to, not replace, the national action plans.
Announcing the approval of the first plans, Margot Wallström welcomed "this historical decision, which clears the way for almost half the plants which will be part of the Pan European emissions trading system" (or 5,000 plants of a total of 12,000 in the EU of 25). "The EU will continue to be in the vanguard of the fight against climate change. It is the first in the world to bring in such a system. It is a highly complex regime, more complex than the sulphur emissions stock exchange which exists in the US", she said. The Commissioner added that after her initial fears about the Member States' tendency to over-allocate quotas, bilateral contacts with the Member States in order today and "their active co-operation", allowed them to make their plans more credible. "We have resolved all the State aid issues", said the Commission.
Germany and Austria will have to modify their legislation to remove their system of a posteriori adjustments of quotas allocated, as the Commission does not allow the state authorities to intervene once the allocation has been made, said Joos Delbeek, chef d'unité for Climate Change at the Commission. Of the United Kingdom, the Commission is waiting for additional information on a problem of methodology (the Commission would like to know how newcomers will be able to join the system) and omission (plants in Gibraltar are not covered).
On the new Member States, which were supposed to notify their plans on 1 May, the Commission is still waiting for some plans (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Malta, Poland, Slovakia). The Commission could prepare infringement proceedings before the summer, or in September at the latest.