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Romania granted temporary free allocation of 71 million EUAs
Romania obtained the approval of the European Commission for the allocation of 71.4 million EUAs (EU allowances for the emission of CO2) given freely for the power producers between 2013 and 2020, reads a press release of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business Milieu (MECMA).
Virtually, the European institution gave a positive answer to the application submitted by the authorities in Bucharest on September 30, 2011 through MECMA, and Romania will still get free gas-emission certificate between 2013 and 2019 for the power producing sector.
The documents requested by the Commission were elaborated by the Institute of Energy Studies and Projections, as MECMA advisor.
Moreover, according to the quoted source, the European Commission approved free allocations of EUAs for the thermal power stations in Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic at the end of last week, after the officials in Brussels had authorized the applications from Cyprus, Estonia and Lithuania in May 2012. The applications of Hungary and Poland are under evaluation.
A total number of 268 million emission certificates will be given freely to power stations in these six states between 2013 and 2019. This number will be reduced on a year basis down to zero in 2020.
The temporary free allocation of the EUAs is a major derogation from the general rule included in the amended EU ETS legislation according to which free emission certificates are not given freely to power producers. That is why the European Parliament and the European Council set several criteria to be met for the temporary free allocation.
Thus, the allocation for 2013 was capped at about 70 percent of the emissions of the national power production in 2013, for the final gross domestic consumption, and this percentage was to be annually reduced as the value of the emission certificates given free must be channeled to investments for the restoration and upgrade of the power infrastructure of the country in question, including the construction of new power stations and the diversification of the energy mix and the supply sources, as well investing in green technologies.
By virtue of article 10c of the amended Directive EU ETS adopted in 2009, ten member states enjoyed the possibility to request temporary derogations from the rule according to which all the EUAs will be auctioned beginning with 2013. Eight of these member states submitted requests for temporary allocation of free certificates, and the applications were evaluated by the European Commission in compliance with the rules and conditions of the Directive.