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The trilogue compromise is voted at the European Parliament!

03/04/2014



On 3 April 2013, the European MEPs voted in favour of the trilogue compromise (458 to 120 with 24 abstaining) at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels.

The text that was accepted was the 30 January 2014 report from the Environmental Committee with amendments to recreate the 4 March 2014 trilogue compromise

What are the main features of the new EU ETS regulation for the 2013-2016?
  1. Aircraft operators must only report emissions from intra-European flights, e.g. flights operated between airports located in the EEA (Discover the new geographical scope of EU ETS)
  2. Unlike the 'stop-the-clock' scope of 2012, flights between the EEA and Switzerland, European microstates, EEA overseas territories and EEA outermost regions are now totally exempt (*)
  3. The deadlines for the reporting and surrendering of 2013 emissions are pushed back to 31 March and 30 April 2015 respectively but operators can submit their verified 2013 AEM Report to their CA at any time
  4. The number of free carbon allowances and the number of allowances to be auctioned will be adjusted proportionally to the new scope
  5. The number of free carbon allowances to be allocated to each aircraft operator will be published around mid-August
  6. The ETS would switch back to full scope from 2017 onwards after the 2016 ICAO Assembly if there is no agreement on a global market-based measure for international aviation emissions
What are the changes for small emitters?

During the 2013-2020 period, non-commercial small emitters with total annual emissions lower than 1,000 tCO2 (taking into account both intra- as well as extra-European flights) are exempt from the EU ETS. 

Important: all Annex 1 flights must be taken into consideration to determine the position of an operator with regards to the 1000 tCO2 threshold. Operators above the 1000 tCO2 threshold (including all Annex 1 flights) have to report emissions from intra-European flights only.

What happened to the 10,000 tCO2 exemption threshold for commercial operators?

The 10,000 tCO2 exemption threshold for commercial operators remains unchanged. This means that all Annex 1 flights (both intra- and extra-European flights) must be taken into consideration to determine if the operator exceeds the 10,000 tCO2 threshold.

Commercial operators above the 10,000 tCO2 threshold (including both intra- and extra-European flights) have to report emissions and surrender allowances for intra-European flights only.

What are the next steps?

The amendments endorsed by the Parliament on 3 April must still be formally adopted by the EU Member States at the European Council. This is scheduled at a meeting of the Council of Ministers on 14 April 2014. 

The regulation will enter into force on the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the EU, which will happen before the end of April. The regulation will apply from the date of its adoption on 14 April.

The European Commission and the Competent Authorities are expected soon to provide further details and guidance to aircraft operators on how to comply with the new rules.

If not already done, operators are recommended to submit their 2013 AEM Report as soon as possible to avoid verifying and submitting both a 2013 and 2014 intra-EEA AEM Report at the same time and incurring twice the workload at the last minute before the 31 March 2015 deadline.

You can contact us or your Competent Authority for any questions on the new EU ETS regulation.

> Discover the new geographical scope of EU ETS
> Download the text of the new EU ETS legislation
> Download voting list
> Download the roll call 
> Download Press Release from Peter Liese
> Download Press Release from the Environment Committee
> Read GreenAir Online article

(*) Flights operated within the same EEA outermost region must still be reported. Only flights operated between an EEA outermost region and other EEA areas or between an EEA outermost region and third countries are exempt. Back to all Verifavia News