Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1842 of 31 October 2019 laying down rules for the application of Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards further arrangements for the adjustments to free allocation of emission allowances due to activity level changes

Article 1

Scope

This Regulation applies to the free allocation of allowances pursuant to Article 10a of Directive 2003/87/EC for the trading period from 2021 until 2030.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

(1) ‘average activity level’ means, for each sub-installation, the arithmetic mean of the related annual activity levels for the two calendar years preceding the submission of a report referred to in Article 3(1);

(2) ‘incumbent installation’ means incumbent installation as defined in Article 2(1) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/331;

(3) ‘heat benchmark sub-installation’ means heat benchmark sub-installation as defined in Article 2(3) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/331;

(4) ‘fuel benchmark sub-installation’ means fuel benchmark sub-installation as defined in Article 2(6) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/331;

(5) ‘allocation period’ means allocation period as defined in Article 2(15) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/331;

(6) ‘group’ means group as defined in Article 2(11) of Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (¹).

Article 3

Reporting requirements

New entrants may submit the reports referred to in Article 5 paragraph 2 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/331 in the year after the first day of operations.

The competent authority may require operators to also report on any of the additional parameters included in Annex IV to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/331 in the activity level report or referred to in its paragraph 1.

Member States may require the submission of a preliminary activity level report, containing all available information at the time of submission. Member States may set time limits for the submission of the preliminary activity level report.

The competent authority may suspend the issuance of free emission allowances to an installation until the competent authority has established that there is no requirement to adjust the allocation to that installation or the Commission has adopted a Decision according to Article 23(4) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/331 concerning the adjustments to the allocation to that installation.

Where applicable, the competent authority shall recover any excess allowances resulting from an over-allocation, in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 48(4) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1122 (²).

The competent authority may require operators and verifiers to use electronic templates or specific file formats for the submission of activity level reports.

The competent authority shall assess the activity level report referred to in paragraphs 1 to 3 of this Article in accordance with the requirements of Articles 7 to 12 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/331. The competent authority may make a conservative estimate of the value of any parameter in any of the following situations:

(a) no verified activity level report has been submitted by the operator by the time limit referred to in paragraph 3 and the issuance of the allowances has not been suspended;

(b) the verified value submitted is not in compliance with this Regulation or Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/331;

(c) the activity level report of an operator has not been verified in accordance with Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2067.

The competent authority shall not increase the allocation to an installation based on an estimate made in the situation under point (a).

Where a verifier has stated, in the verification report pursuant to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2067, the existence of non-material misstatements which have not been corrected by the operator before issuing the verification report, the competent authority shall assess those misstatements, and make a conservative estimate of the value of a parameter, where possible. The competent authority shall inform the operator whether and which corrections are required to the activity level report. The operator shall make that information available to the verifier.

Article 4

Average activity levels

Article 5

Adjustments to free allocation due to activity level changes

Article 6

Other changes in the operation of the installation

In accordance with the first subparagraph of this paragraph, the amounts of heat and fuel used for the production of each product shall be determined in line with the methodologies laid down in the monitoring methodology plan as approved in accordance with Article 6 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/331.

Article 7

Entry into force and application

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.