Commission Regulation (EU) No 389/2013 of 2 May 2013 establishing a Union Registry pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Decisions No 280/2004/EC and No 406/2009/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Commission Regulations (EU) No 920/2010 and No 1193/2011 (Text with EEA relevance)Text with EEA relevance

This Regulation lays down general, operational and maintenance requirements concerning the Union Registry for the trading period commencing on 1 January 2013 and subsequent periods, concerning the independent transaction log provided for in Article 20(1) of Directive 2003/87/EC, and concerning registries provided for in Article 6 of Decision No 280/2004/EC.

This Regulation also provides for a communication system between the Union Registry and the ITL.

This Regulation applies to allowances created for the trading period of the Union emissions trading scheme commencing on 1 January 2013 and subsequent periods, annual emission allocation units and Kyoto units.

This Regulation also applies to aviation allowances to be auctioned that were created for the trading period from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2012.

Unless otherwise indicated, terms used in Title II of this Regulation have the same meaning as under Directive 2003/87/EC. Moreover, the definitions set out in Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1031/2010 and in Article 3 of Commission Decision 2011/278/EU apply. The following definitions also apply:

1. ‘account holder’ means a natural or legal person that holds an account in the registries system;

2. ‘central administrator’ means the person designated by the Commission pursuant to Article 20 of Directive 2003/87/EC;

3. ‘competent authority’ means the authority or authorities designated by a Member State pursuant to Article 18 of Directive 2003/87/EC;

4. ‘external trading platform’ means any type of multilateral exchange that brings together or facilitates the bringing together of multiple third-party buying and selling interests as defined in Article 4 of Directive 2004/39/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽¹⁾, where the interests bought and sold are in allowances or Kyoto units;

5. ‘verifier’ means a verifier as defined in Article 3(3) of Commission Regulation (EU) No 600/2012⁽²⁾;

6. ‘assigned amount units’ (‘AAUs’) means units issued pursuant to Article 7(3) of Decision No 280/2004/EC;

7. ‘aviation allowances’ means allowances created pursuant to Article 3c(2) of Directive 2003/87/EC;

8. ‘general allowances’ means all other allowances created pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC;

9. ‘long-term certified emission reductions (‘lCERs’) means units issued for an afforestation or reforestation project activity under the clean development mechanism (‘CDM’) which, subject to Decision 5/CMP.1 of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, expire at the end of the emission reduction crediting period of the afforestation or reforestation project activity under the CDM for which they were issued;

10. ‘removal units’ (‘RMUs’) means units issued pursuant to the relevant provisions in the annex to Decision 13/CMP.1;

11. ‘temporary certified emission reductions’ (‘tCERs’) means units issued for an afforestation or reforestation project activity under the CDM which, subject to Decision 5/CMP.1, expire at the end of the Kyoto Protocol commitment period following the one during which they were issued;

12. ‘Kyoto units’ means AAUs, emission reduction units (‘ERUs’), certified emission reductions (‘CERs’), RMUs, lCERs and tCERs.

13. ‘process’ means an automated technical means to carry out an action relating to an account, a unit or a portion of the credit entitlement in a registry;

14. ‘transaction’ means a process in the Union registry that includes the transfer of an allowance, a Kyoto unit, an annual emission allocation unit or a portion of the credit entitlement from one account to another account;

15. ‘surrender’ means the accounting of an allowance by an operator or aircraft operator against the verified emissions of its installation or aircraft;

16. ‘cancellation’ means the definitive disposal of a Kyoto unit by its holder without accounting it against verified emissions;

17. ‘deletion’ means the definitive disposal of an allowance by its holder without accounting it against verified emissions;

18. ‘retirement’ means the accounting of a Kyoto unit by a party to the Kyoto Protocol against the reported emissions of that Party;

19. ‘money laundering’ means money laundering as defined in Article 1(2) of Directive 2005/60/EC of the European Parliament and the Council⁽³⁾;

20. ‘serious crime’ means serious crime as defined in point (5) of Article 3 of Directive 2005/60/EC;

21. ‘terrorist financing’ means terrorist financing as defined in Article 1(4) of Directive 2005/60/EC;

22. ‘national administrator’ means the entity responsible for administering on behalf of a Member State a set of user accounts under the jurisdiction of a Member State in the Union Registry, designated in accordance with Article 8;

23. ‘directors’ means the persons effectively directing the day-to-day operations of a legal person

24. ‘Central European Time’ means Central European Summer Time during the summer-time period as defined in Articles 1, 2 and 3 of Directive 2000/84/EC;

25. ‘national administrative platform’ means an external system operated by a national administrator or a competent authority that is securely connected to the Union Registry for the purposes of automating functions related to the administering of accounts and of compliance obligations in the Union Registry;

26. ‘international credits’ means CERs, ERUs and credits from projects or other emission reducing activities which may be used pursuant to Article 11a(5) of Directive 2003/87/EC;

27. ‘annual emission allocation unit’ (‘AEA’) means a subdivision of a Member State's annual emission allocation as determined pursuant to Article 3(2) and Article 10 of Decision No 406/2009/EC equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent;

28. ‘credit entitlement’ means the right of a Member State, expressed as a number equal to a percentage of its 2005 greenhouse gas emissions as specified in Article 5(4) of Decision No 406/2009/EC, to use credits referred to in Article 5 of Decision No 406/2009/EC in order to comply with its obligations under Article 3 of Decision No 406/2009/EC;

29. ‘unused credit entitlement’ means a Member State's credit entitlement less the sum of international credits, tCERs or lCERs held in the ESD Compliance Account at the moment of determination of the compliance status figures pursuant to Article 79 of this Regulation.

30. ‘compliance period’ means the period from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2020 during which the Member States shall limit their greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to Article 3 of Decision No 406/2009/EC.