Visit What is the EU ETS? to learn more on the topic!
Annual compliance cycle
The EU ETS compliance cycle refers to the annual process of monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of greenhouse gas emissions, including associated procedures. For the EU ETS to operate effectively, the MRV process must be robust, transparent, consistent and accurate.
Industrial installations and aircraft operators covered by the EU ETS must get their monitoring plan approved by the competent authority before the start of the monitoring period. The monitoring plan is part of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions permit required for industrial installations included in the EU ETS.
For emissions in each calendar year, ETS operators must carry out monitoring procedures and prepare an emissions report. Operators must have their report verified by an accredited verifier and submit it to the competent authority by 31 March of the following year. Then, by 30 September of that year, operators must surrender emission allowances Union Registry.
Rules related to the EU ETS compliance cycle are set out in the following regulations:
Since 2024, emissions from buildings, roads, transport and additional sectors (mainly small industries not included in the EU ETS) are covered by a new emissions trading system named ETS2.

Guidance, support and ETS Reporting Tool (ERT)
To promote the efficient, harmonised and cost-effective application of the above regulations across all countries covered by the EU ETS, the European Commission provides templates to be used for:
- monitoring plans
- annual emission reports
- verification reports
- improvement reports
Guidance, exemplars and other useful tools are also provided to improve understanding of regulatory requirements.
See the Documentation section below to access these tools and find more information, including quick guides summarising key requirements and relevant guidance.

The ETS Reporting Tool (ERT) is a practical, free-to-use resource developed by the European Commission to help operators, competent authorities, and verifiers perform their MRV procedures and comply with regulatory requirements. The above templates can be found in the ERT, which is continuously evolving to incorporate new solutions and features proposed by Member States. Recently, the ERT was expanded to also cover ETS2-related MRV procedures.
Visit the ERT webpage and consult the ERT User Manual for more information.
MRV for aviation operators

Additional tools and guidance have been developed to facilitate MRV procedures for aviation operators covered by the EU ETS.
Small emitters (emitting less than 25 000 tonnes of CO2 per year) can:
- Determine their CO2 emissions using Eurocontrol’s simplified monitoring tool, known as Small Emitter Tool (SET).
- Obtain an automatically generated annual emissions report via Eurocontrol’s Environment Management Information Service (EMIS, previously called ETS Support Facility) and submit it without further verification.
The Commission has also issued:
- Guidelines to the national authorities on the detailed interpretation of aviation activities within the scope of the EU ETS.
- An MRR Guidance Document for aircraft operators, which can be found in the Documentation section below.
Visit our webpage on aviation to learn more on the topic.
Aircraft operators and their administering countries: Each European Economic Area (EEA) country – the EU Member States plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – has appointed a competent authority to manage the inclusion of aviation in the EU emissions trading system (EU ETS).
MRV for maritime transport
The EU ETS annual compliance cycle is slightly different for maritime transport, as detailed by Regulation (EU) 2015/757:
- Shipping companies must monitor and report their greenhouse gas emissions throughout the year.
- By 31 March of the following year, the shipping company must submit a verified emissions report at company level to the relevant administering authority of a Member State.
- By 1 April, the shipping company must have its emissions for the previous year reported and marked as verified in the Union Registry system.
- By 30 September, the shipping company must surrender the equivalent number of allowances in the Union Registry system, covering the emissions reported for the previous year.
Visit our webpage on maritime transport to learn more on the topic.
MRV for ETS2: buildings, road transport and additional sectors
As part of the 2023 revisions of the ETS Directive, a new emissions trading system named ETS2 was created, separate from the existing EU ETS. This new system will cover and address the CO2 emissions from fuel combustion in buildings, road transport and additional sectors (mainly small industry not covered by the existing EU ETS).
Visit our webpage on ETS2 to learn more on the topic.
Penalty for excessive emissions
Each year, operators covered by the EU ETS must surrender the corresponding number of allowances to match their emissions in the previous year.
Operators must purchase enough allowances to cover their emissions. If they fail to do so, operators face a €100 penalty for each tonne of excess emissions.
The names of penalised operators are also disclosed to the public.
The €100 penalty per tonne of excess CO2 emissions (or its equivalent amount in N2O or PFCs, other greenhouse gases regulated by the EU ETS) increases every year, based on the EU inflation rate.
This means that the penalty will increase a bit each year to keep pace with rising prices. The European Index of Consumer Prices (EICP) or the Harmonized Index (HICP) published on Eurostat’s database are used to calculate the increase in consumer prices.
- 27/09/2024 - Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2493 of 23 September 2024 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2066 as regards updating the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
- 01/07/2024 - Consolidated version of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2066 on the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions.
- 14/05/2024 - Consolidated version of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2067 on the verification of data and on the accreditation of verifiers
- 17/10/2023 - Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2122 of 17 October 2023 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2066 as regards updating the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
- 18/07/2019 - Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1603 supplementing Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards measures adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation for the monitoring, reporting and verification of aviation emissions for the purpose of implementing a global market-based measure
- 21/06/2012 - SWD(2012) 177 - Impact Assessment accompanying the Commission Regulation 601/2012 and Commission Regulation 600/2012
- 01/03/2022 - Quick guide for operators of stationary installations
- 01/03/2022 - Quick guide for aircraft operators
- 01/03/2022 - Quick guide for competent authorities
- 21/03/2022 - Quick guide for verifiers
- 21/03/2022 - Quick guide for national accreditation bodies
- 14/01/2025 - Guidance document No. 1 - The Monitoring and Reporting Regulation – General guidance for installations
- 17/12/2024 - Template No. 1: Monitoring plan for the emissions of stationary installations
- User Manual for the AER template
- 10/02/2025 - Template No. 4: Annual Emissions Report (AER) for stationary installations
- Template No. 7: Improvement report for stationary installations
- User Manual for the IR template
- 05/2024 - Unreasonable costs determination tool
- Exemplar checklist for assessing installation MPs
- Exemplar monitoring plan
- Exemplar MRR Article 13 Simplified Monitoring Plan
- Exemplar improvement report
- Exemplar monitoring plan update
- 29/05/2023 - Guidance document No. 2 - The Monitoring and Reporting Regulation – General guidance for aircraft operators
- 17/10/2022 - Guidance document No. 3 - Biomass issues
- 07/10/2021 - Guidance document No. 4 - Uncertainty Assessment
- 07/10/2021 - Guidance document No. 5 - Sampling and Analysis
- 07/10/2021 - Guidance document No. 6 - Data flow activities and control system
- 24/01/2022 - Guidance document No. 8 - EU ETS Inspections
- 03/02/2022 - The Accreditation and Verification Regulation - Explanatory Guidance Document No.1
- 03/02/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.1 on the scope of verification
- 03/02/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.2 on risk analysis
- 20/12/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.3 on process analysis
- 03/02/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.4 on sampling
- 12/2020 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.5 on site visits concerning installations
- 31/01/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.6 on the verification report
- 09/02/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.7 on competence of verifiers
- 21/03/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.8 on the relation between EN ISO 14065 and AVR
- 10/01/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.9 on the relation between EN ISO/IEC 17011 and AVR
- 10/01/2022 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.10 on information exchange
- Information exchange template No. 1 - Notification template (Article 77 AVR) from the verifier to the National Accreditation Body/National Certification Authority (by 15 November each year)
- Information exchange template No. 2 - Work programme (Article 71(1) AVR) from the National Accreditation Body/National Certification Authority to the Competent Authority (by 31 December each year)
- Information exchange template No. 3 - Management report (Article 71(3) AVR) from the National Accreditation Body/National Certification Authority to the Competent Authority (by 1 June each year)
- Information exchange template No. 4 - Information exchange (Article 73 AVR) from the Competent Authority to the National Accreditation Body/National Certification Authority (recommended by 30 September each year)
- 27/11/2017 - Guidance document - Key guidance note II.11 on certification
- 10/01/2022 - Guidance document – Key guidance note II.12 on time allocation in verification
- 03/02/2022 - The Accreditation and Verification Regulation - Verification Guidance for EU ETS Aviation (GD III)
- 07/10/2021 - Guidance document No.7 – The Monitoring and Reporting Regulation and Accreditation and Verification Regulation – Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS)
- 20/12/2013 - Conservative estimate of emissions
- 20/12/2013 - Review of the annual emissions report and verification report
- 25/11/2024 – Training event: New developments in the EU ETS from 2024
- 17/10/2023 - Training event: New developments in the EU ETS from 2024
- 10/10/2023 - Training event: Introduction to EU ETS Monitoring & Reporting
- 05/2023 - MRVA training event on biomass
- 09/2020 - A&V training event: 2020 Handbook
- 16/09/2021 - Annual activity level verification
- 26/11/2020 - M&R training event: roadmap through M&R Guidance
- 27/11/2019 - M&R training event: unreasonable costs, uncertainty assessment and data gaps
- 15/11/2018 - Training on Round Robin Test
- 09/2017 - A&V Training Handbook
- 20/06/2017 - M&R training webinar on Sampling Plans
- 14-15/09/2016 - 2016 A&V training event
- 31/05/2016 - M&R training event on Uncertainty Assessment
- 08/09/2015 - A&V training event
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2023
- Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/919 of 8 June 2022 amending Commission Decision 2005/381/EC as regards the questionnaire for reporting on the application of Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
- Explanatory Note
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2022
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2021
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2020
- Commission Implementing Decision 2014/166/EU as regards the questionnaire for reporting on the application of Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
- Explanatory Note
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2019
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2018
- Analysis of national responses under Article 21 of the EU ETS Directive in 2017
Monitoring and reporting guidelines
- 16/04/2009 - Monitoring and reporting guidelines
Verification guidance for aviation
- 30/11/2010 - EU ETS Verification Guidance for Aviation
Small emitters' tool
- 09/07/2010 - Commission Regulation (EU) No 606/2010 on the approval of a simplified tool developed by the European organisation for air safety navigation (Eurocontrol) to estimate the fuel consumption of certain small emitting aircraft operators
- Small emitters' tool developed by Eurocontrol
Guidance documents developed by Member States
- Guidance document prepared by the Netherlands and the United Kingdom
- Questions and Answers report on the initiative of the Dutch Emissions Authority (December 2008)
- Frequently asked questions, done by the Aviation Implementation Task Force
- 19/01/2024 - Threshold and reporting obligation guidance for 2024-2026, 3rd edition, prepared by the Aviation Task Force
- 19/12/2024 - Technical guidance on supporting documentation required for alternative aviation fuels (Zero-rating/FEETS) claims for aviation in the EU ETS, prepared by the Aviation Task Force
Example monitoring plans
- Example emissions monitoring plan
- Example tonne-kilometre monitoring plan
- Example emissions data flow charts
- Example tonne-kilometre data flow charts