Brussels, 16/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - Hungary has conditionally passed the assessment of its greenhouse gas emissions quotas national allocation plan (NAP) for the period 2008-2012. On 16 April, the European Commission announced that it had given its conditional green light to the second Hungarian NAP, having duly examined it on the basis of the criteria under the directive instituting the Community system of trading in greenhouse gas emissions quotas (directive 2003/87/EC, modified by directive 2004/101/EC).
The total annual CO2 emissions quota authorised is 26.9 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, which is 12.4% (or 3.8 million tonnes) less than the figure initially proposed by Hungary. Apart from this downward revision of the annual limit for emissions to be shared out by the large energy consuming industrial installations covered by the Community system in emissions quotas trading, the Hungarian authorities are called upon to give up their plan to carry out ex-post adjustments to the allocated quotas. The Commission has also tabled reservations on the guarantees for the allocations post-2012, which the Commission would need to examine under Community rules applicable to state aid. The implementation of these guarantees may be rejected at the examination of the third Hungarian NAP (which will cover the post-2012 period).
In the view of Stavros Dimas, the European commissioner for the environment, the decision to approve the Hungarian plan under certain conditions confirms that “Europe is fully committed to achieving its Kyoto target and to making the Emissions Trading System a successful weapon for fighting climate change”. The commissioner went on to state that “the Commission is assessing all national plans in a consistent way to ensure equal treatment of member states and to create the necessary scarcity in the European carbon market (…). The same standards will be applied to all the others”.
The criteria listed in the directive (12 in total) aim to ensure the compatibility of the plans with the commitments contracted by the EU and the member states within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, with emissions properly verified and summed up in the annual report of the Commission on progress made, and the technical options for reducing emissions. They also aim to guarantee that Community rules on competition and state aid are observed.
Once put into operation, the desired modifications will mean that Hungary's plan will be considered to have been definitively approved without further procedures. At the time of going to press, the European Commission had assessed the national allocation plans for greenhouse gas emissions quotas of 19 member states (Hungary, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom). (an)