Update- Implementing acts published in the Official Journal

ATTN:    ALL FULL MEMBERS

               ALL TECHNICAL COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Dear Members,

You may note below updates with regards to the implementing and delegate acts of the EU ETS

Implementing Acts published in the Official Journal

The following implementing acts were published in the Official Journal:

• The act on templates for monitoring plans, reports & other documents for shipping emissions was published on the 7 November. The text can be found here
• The act on the rules for the administration of shipping companies by administering authorities under the EU Emissions Trading System was published on 23 November. The final text can be found here

Summary

A Summary of the implementing act on the administration of shipping companies is provided here below:

• The implementing act defines the entity responsible to surrender the EU ETS allowances. The Commission has decided to “depart, for the purpose of the EU ETS, from the meaning of the notion of ‘shipping company’ in general maritime law in order to allow the parties to agree contractually among them on the identity of the entity that is entrusted with the obligations following from the EU ETS”.

• The responsible entity is the shipowner. The shipowner can contractually mandate the ISM company to assume responsibility for the EU ETS obligations and to surrender the EU ETS allowances. In this case, the ISM company should provide its administering authority with information on ships under its responsibility (article 1).

• The Commission has added a new recital 6 to clarify that: “the entities responsible for compliance with the obligations under Regulation (EU) 2015/7574 and with the obligations under Directive 2003/87/EC must be clearly identified at all times. To this end, and with a view to ensuring coherence in administration and enforcement, Regulation (EU) 2015/757 (EU MRV) provides that the same entity must be responsible for both”.

• In recital 7 and article 3, the Commission also modified the act to provide that the information recorded in Thetis MRV should be used to attribute companies to Member States and not the IMO Unique Company and Registered Owner Identification Number Scheme.

The administering authority is defined as follows:

• The EU Member State where the shipping company is registered, as recorded in Thetis MRV (article 3).

• The EU Member States where the company registered outside the EU had the most port call, on the basis of data stored in the Union maritime information and exchange system (SafeSeaNet) (article 3).

• If this is the 1^st voyage between two Member States of a ship of a shipping company which is not registered in a Member  State, the Member State where that voyage started (article 4).

• If the shipping company, which is not registered in a Member State, has its greatest number of port calls in two or more Member States, the Member State where the shipping company had its first port call among the voyages that started or ended in those Member States with an equal number of port calls (article 5).

Next steps

Implementing acts enter into force on the third day following that of their publication.

Delegated and implementing acts recently adopted

Several delegated acts have been recently adopted by the Commission as follows:

• The delegated act on the rules on monitoring and reporting of shipping emissions was adopted on 12 October. The delegated act now includes the reference to FuelEU Maritime when covering the possibility for companies to diverge from the default values for the emission factors listed in the table at page 3, but also when covering the possibility to use certified values. The values for e-methanol were modified in the table. The text can be found here.
• The delegated act on the rules for reporting and submission of the aggregated emissions data at company level was adopted on 12 October. Recitals were added on the responsible entity and on the consistency of zero-rating of biomass with other EU policies. The text can be found here.

• The delegated act on the operation of the Innovation Fund was adopted by the Commission on 15 September. The text can be found here.
• The delegated act on the update of emission allowances auctioning rules was adopted by the Commission on 17 October. The text can be found here.

• The delegated act on the functioning of the Union Registry was adopted on 25 October. The text can be found here.

Next steps

The publications of the delegated acts open a scrutiny period of two months, during which the Parliament or the Council can oppose its entry into force or request an extension of the scrutiny period. Once adopted, they will be published in the EU Official Journal and will enter into force shortly afterwards.

Upcoming publications

Only one delegated act has not been published by the Commission yet:

• The delegated act on rules on approval and verification activities and accreditation of verifiers in relation to maritime transport emissions.

Next steps

The revised EU ETS and EU MRV legislation will apply from 1^st January 2024.

Kind regards

Emmanuel Vergetis

Regional Representative

Athens- Greece