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Additional tools
Each Member State of the European Union had to prepare and publish a National Allocation Plan (NAP), a plan setting out the total quantity of greenhouse gas emission allowances that it grant to their companies, for the second trading period (2008-2012) by 30 June 2006. For the third trading period, which begins in 2013, there will no longer be any national allocation plans. Instead, the allocation will be determined directly at EU level.
The first allocation process, for the 2005-2007 period, yielded many important lessons.
Lessons learned from the first trading period
Chief among these lessons is that the process is very time-consuming. Timely notification of NAPs to the Commission as well as timely final allocation decisions are therefore important for giving companies certainty well before a trading period starts.
Another important lesson is that the NAPs for the first trading period were too complex and not sufficiently transparent. Complexity makes it hard for companies and other market actors to understand a NAP and thereby creates uncertainty. Also, a lack of transparency makes it very difficult for stakeholders to understand and form a view on plans.
Need to be simpler and more transparent
The European Commission thus emphasised the need to make the second period NAPs simpler and more transparent. To ensure greater transparency, the Commission has drawn up a number of standardised tables to summarise key information contained in NAPs. To move to simpler NAPs the Commission encourages Member States to review critically the administrative rules created in the first NAP round.
For the third trading period, which begins in 2013, there will no longer be any national allocation plans. Instead, the allocation will be determined directly at EU level.
Click on the "Documentation" tab above to find the national allocation plans for the period 2008-2012.