Brussels, 21/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has accepted the Greek plan allocating CO2 emission allowances to Greek companies for the 2005-2007 trading period. By accepting the final 25 national plans, the Commission completes its assessment of allocation plans for the first 2005-2007 phase of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. The Greek allocation plan covers 141 installations, and all installations qualify for trading. They will be allocated 223.3 million allowances (covering 223.3 million tonnes of CO2) for the 2005-2007 trading period.
The Commission's NAP crunch began some 14 months ago with Member States submitting the first national allocation plans in March 2004. Commissioner Stavros Dimas, in charge of the environment, said: “Our discussions with Member States were facilitated by the fact that all parties trusted that we would assess the plans consistently. There has also been great willingness on all sides to make the EU emissions trading scheme a success.” In total, the Commission has approved the allocation of about 6,57 billion allowances to a bit more than 11,400 installations for the trading period 2005 to 2007. It has demanded cuts in the number of allowances to be allocated in 14 of the 25 plans. These cuts total over 290 million allowances, or about 4% of the notified number of allowances. In addition, the Commission has disallowed intended ex-post adjustments in 13 plans.
Closing the allocation cycle involved allocating approved allowances to companies via their issuance into an electronic registry account at national level is the final step of the allocation cycle. So far nine Member States have reached this stage, and about 50% of the allowances approved are already in circulation. Sixteen Member States still work on finalising technicalities necessary to launch the national registry and/or revise their allocation plans following demands by the Commission to cut the number of allowances. The Commission's task is to scrutinise the plans against eleven allocation criteria. Criteria comprise consistency with the country's overall strategy to reach its Kyoto target and emissions developments, non-discrimination, respect for EU competition and state aid rules, and certain technical aspects. Further information: (http: //europa.eu.int/comm/environment/climat/emission.htm).