Court's judgment on free allocation in the EU ETS for the period 2013-2020

On 8 September 2016, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered a judgment in which it confirmed the methodology applied by the Commission when establishing the benchmarks for free allocation of allowances for the period 2013 to 2020 (Commission Decision 2011/278/EU).

The Court found, in particular, that the Commission had not committed any manifest error when taking into account the efficient energy recovery from waste gases and emissions related to their use in the value of the hot metal benchmark, the most important benchmark in the steel sector.

The 54 EU ETS benchmarks are an important pillar of the successful regulatory framework to prevent the risk of carbon leakage and legal certainty for industrial installations benefiting from free allocation is important.

Read more:

• Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-180/15
• Free allocation of ETS allowances