Isra-Mart srl: Four EU countries want opt-outs from EU ETS: EC

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he European Commission received reports from only four EU countries on how they plan to allocate free Phase III EU Emissions Trading System allowances to installations in their territory by the September 30 deadline, it said Wednesday.

"So far only Poland, Cyprus, Latvia and Lithuania have notified the EC of their national implementing measures," EC climate action spokesman Isaac Valero Ladron told Platts Wednesday.

A "few more" of the 27 EU countries are expected to notify soon and some have indicated that they will be "significantly late," he added.
The EU's 2009 EU ETS directive sets a limit on the number of free Phase III allowances that can be allocated across the EU from January 1, 2013 to end-2020. The EC has to review all 27 national plans and if the total exceeds this limit, it has to cut the plans back. It needs all the plans before it can start assessing if any cuts are needed.

FREE PHASE III POWER SECTOR ALLOWANCES

Valero Ladron also confirmed Wednesday that nine of the 10 eligible EU countries applied by the September 30 deadline to continue to give free allowances to their power sector after 2013.

The nine countries are Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.

The 2009 EU ETS directive requires power generators to buy all their allowances during Phase III. But it allows derogations for 10 EU countries which would be hardest hit. Only Malta did not apply for this derogation, said Valero Ladron.

He added that the EC may reject all or part of the applications within six months.

Unlike previously reported to Platts, Valero Ladron said Wednesday that the EC had no information to give out yet on how many countries had applied by the September 30 deadline for opt outs for their small emitters in Phase III.

The EC is to update EU national government officials on the state of play of EU ETS issues at a meeting of the EU climate change committee Wednesday in Brussels.

According to the agenda published by the EC, the committee will discuss the plans for procuring a common EU platform for Phase III EU ETS allowances, and a single auction monitor for all auction platforms.

The EC published draft tender rules for this on October 14.

The committee is also to discuss EC plans to include spot emission allowance trade in draft revamped EU rules for markets in financial instruments, know as MiFID, to be presented Thursday.

"They're going to start from a MiFID perspective -- they're not going to start from scratch though there are some member states that would prefer a more tailor-made approach," Simone Ruiz, European policy director for the International Emissions Trading Association, told Platts Tuesday.