The European commission yesterday sent out a revised auctioning proposal to the 27 member states ahead of the ballot in a fortnight, Point Carbon News understands.

According to commission sources, the latest changes to the proposal includes minor technical improvements but no major alterations to key sections on opt-out platforms.

How to accommodate states insisting on the right to hold their own auction platforms has been the most difficult issue to agree over 18 months of work on the regulations.

Last week Germany, the biggest emitter in the EU cap-and-trade scheme, demanded further talks before agreeing to the regulations.

Power companies and other market participants have urged the member states to reach a deal to ensure the rules are passed at the 14 July meeting, fearing the slipping of deadlines.

The commission faces a tight schedule to get the rules passed in time to allow the systems to be set up before 2013.

The EU executive was due to get rules on the vastly scaled up amount of ETS auctioning over the 2013-2020 period finalised by 30 June, according to a timetable set by EU law.

From 2013, almost all utilities in the ETS will have to pay for their entire EUA requirements, which the commission reckons will amount to around €15 billion ($18.68 million) a year at today’s prices.

By Ben Garside – bg@pointcarbon.com

London