Commission invites Member States to indicate their positions on back-loading

As the next step to back-load the auctioning of 900 million allowances in phase 3 of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) starting in 2013, all Member States will be invited to indicate their position on a draft amendment of the Auctioning Regulation when it is discussed at the next Climate Change Committee meeting on 13 December.

In order to provide a high degree of legal certainty in relation to back-loading of the auction time profile, the Commission considered it useful to clarify the ETS Directive. A limited amendment of the Directive was therefore proposed by the Commission on 25 July 2012 and Parliament and Council are invited to urgently conclude the legislative process.

The Commission has sent a draft amendment of the Auctioning Regulation to Member States to gather their positions in December. The agenda for the December Committee meeting does not however invite them to adopt a formal opinion (vote) at the meeting. The Committee is expected to be asked to adopt a formal opinion promptly after the agreement on the proposed clarification of the ETS Directive by the co-legislators. Parliament and Council will then be asked to complete their scrutiny as soon as possible thereafter. Once this is done, the Commission will be able formally to adopt the amendment of the Regulation.

Read more:

• Draft amendment of the Auctioning Regulation
• ETS Auctioning