EU begins process against Cyprus for not submitting emissions trading NAP

The European Commission has activated the pre-judicial process against the Republic of Cyprus, after Nicosia did not submit its national plan for allocating carbon dioxide (CO2) emission allowances for the 2008-2012 trading period of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
The process was announced Monday by the spokeswoman of Environment Commissioner Stavros Demas, while the relevant letter was sent at the Foreign Ministry of Cyprus on January 24, 2006.
The letter said that article 9 of the EU directive 2003/87/EC provides that every member state forms a National Allocation Plan (NAP), which determines the ‘cap’ or limit, on the total amount of CO2 that installations covered by the EU ETS each member state can emit and specify how many CO2 emission allowances each plant will receive.
The deadline to submit the NAP was 30 June 2006. In a letter on May 30, 2006, the services of the Commission drew that attention of the Republic of Cyprus authorities to the need to comply with the June 30 2006 deadline as regards the NAP, but no such plan was submitted.
Cyprus has to submit the plan in two months time from the day it receives the “letter of warning”, i.e. is until March 24, 2007.
If the plan is submitted within this period, the Commission will stop the pre-judicial process. If it is not submitted the Commission will move to the second phase (letter of “justified opinion”) which is that last stage before filing a recourse at the

.