BRATISLAVA, January 26, (WEBNOVINY) — New industrial sectors – chemical industry, aluminum producers and air transport – will join emission quotas trading based on the draft amendment to the law on trading with emission quotas with incorporated reservations, which the Cabinet passed on Wednesday. “The draft further defines the use of emission quotas so that greenhouse gases allowances or pollution quotas may not be subject to a lien or as non-financial deposit into share capital of a capital company,“ states the report to the draft revision to the emission law, which the Environment Minister submitted at Wednesday’s Cabinet session. The Cabinet also passed the intention of the Ministry of Environment to ask parliament to deal with the amendment in expedited legislative procedure.
The reason behind it is that until September 30, 2011, EU member states are required to make public and submit a list of entities on their territories to which the European directive applies on the system of emission quotas trading, as well as all free of charge allocations to respective organizations in line with EU rules.
“The bill will be discussed in a fast-track legislative procedure because we are pressed by the economic situation. We are rescuing money of companies, which are obligatorily involved in the whole scope of economic activity, mainly industrial companies. If the bill was not passed, we may not manage to enroll in the next procedure as of 2013, which would mean expenditures of EUR 570 million for the purchase of emission quotas,” explained Environment Minister Jozsef Nagy after discussion on the material. He added that it would also cause a shortfall in the state budget. Nagy thinks that not passing the bill could even liquidate some companies so besides the shortfall in tax revenue it would have social consequences resulting from increased unemployment.
SITA