Since 2005, electronic communication between around 1,800 compliant German installations in EU emissions trading and the German Emissions Trading Authority (DEHSt) has to take place via the Virtual Post Office (VPS) as part of reporting. Using the qualified electronic signature (QES), the VPS enables secure and legally binding electronic communication. Since 2021, the group of "compulsorily obliged" VPS users has now been expanded to an estimated 1,200 additional applicants who can submit reimbursement requests in accordance with BEDV and BECV.
What all these users and applicants have in common is that with the VPS they have to fall back on a relatively old system architecture that is "ideally" suited to cause problems and thus then run into possible administrative offences.
In our Emissionsbrief 03-2023, Emissionshändler.com shows all newly obligated users as well as those who have been responsible for the EU ETS for many years what the problem is in detail and what a possible solution could look like.

The national emissions trading system nEHS, which began on 01.01.2021, obliges distributors to buy emissions certificates for fuels placed on the market. The resulting costs are passed on to the purchasers of fuels. In order to relieve the industrial customers affected by high additional costs, the BEHG Carbon Leakage Ordinance (BECV) was issued in summer 2021, through which eligible companies can partially recover the higher energy costs incurred by them as a result of the nEHS in the form of a subsidy.
If German companies do not apply for these annual subsidies, which are usually in the six-digit range, they will be at a significant competitive disadvantage compared to their domestic and foreign competitors.
The amount of aid that can be granted and the effort that must be made to obtain the aid, as well as the technical requirements that must be met, are explained in more detail in our Issue Brief 02-2023.
In addition, we provide information on the EU's new plans for issuing and returning EUA certificates in an extra info box.

In the summer of 2021, the European Commission published its "Fit for 55 - Proposal", laying the foundation for the future European energy and climate policy.
An essential part of the Fit for 55 plan was a comprehensive reform of the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), the most important emission-reducing instrument at European level, whose participating sectors account for approximately 41% of emissions in the EU. Emissionshändler.com has already reported in detail on the EU Commission's reform proposals in our Emissions Letters due to their implications for companies subject to compliance requirements.
Now, after about a year of arguing and discussing the proposals of the EU Commission within and between the various European institutions, the EU Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council were able to announce compromises for the various topics on 18 December 2022. Since these still have to be translated into laws and regulations, changes in detail cannot be completely ruled out, but the essential points should remain as they are.

In the following, our Head of Emissions Trading, Nico Fip, explains in detail in our Emissions Letter 01-2023 how the original plans of the EU Commission have been changed by the compromises reached and how the reforms will influence the further course of the trading period and the conditions for companies subject to compliance in the EU ETS.