Suspension of access to allowances or Kyoto units
Legal basis:
the legal basis for such a measure is Article 71 of the Proposal.
Premises:
The suspension of access to allowances or Kyoto units might take place where there exists a suspicion that the allowances or Kyoto units have been the subject of a transaction constituting fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing or other serious crime.
The entity entitled to take the measure and a procedure:
1. An administrator or an administrator acting on request of the competent authority
may suspend access to allowances or Kyoto units in the part of the Union Registry it
administers.
2. The Commission may instruct the Central Administrator to suspend access to allowances or Kyoto units in the Union Registry or the EUTL.
In both above-mentioned cases the suspension might take place for a maximum period of two weeks. It is worth noting that the said measure may be applied in the entire Union Registry as well as in the part thereof.
Delegation to the Member States
A separate significant possibility is also provided for in Article 71(4) of the proposal which states that a national law enforcement authority of the Member State of the national administrator may also instruct the administrator to implement a suspension on the basis of and in accordance with national law. This provision establishes a legal basis for intervention of the national law with regard to the suspension of access to allowances or Kyoto units in the Union Registry. It might, however, be contentious whether the delegation at issue relates to the entire Union Registry or the part thereof administered by the national administrator. Another potential ambiguous issue is the application of the said provision to the EUTL.
Notwithstanding these uncertainties the introduction of the delegation laid down in Article 71(4) means that the responsibility for securing the safety of the Union Registry will be shared between the Commission (as an author of the Registry Regulation) and the Member States which are granted a discretion as regards addressing additional premises and procedures for suspension of access to allowances and Kyoto units.