The German association of industrial energy consumers (VIK e.V.) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the Draft Implementing Regulation laying down rules for the application of Directive 2003/87/EC as regards the content of climate-neutrality plans needed for granting free allocation of emission allowances (CNP-Regulation).

According to the Directive 2023/959 climate-neutrality plans are to be drafted to receive the conditional free allocation by operators of installations whose greenhouse gas emission levels are higher than the 80th percentile of emission levels for the relevant product benchmarks. Our main request is that the obligation and penalty regarding CNPs for the least 20% efficient installations should be interpreted and applied at the sub-installation level (Article 10a of the ETS Directive 2023/959). This would lead to a more consistent and proportionate treatment, where the obligation is only applied for the relevant product benchmark sub-installations belonging to the worst 20% percentile. In addition, it is essential that the relevant values will be published in time and the national authorities contact installations’ operators beforehand. Generally, the time frame between the adoption of the CNP-Regulation in November 2023 and the CNP submission on 30 May 2024 is too short for companies to prepare CNPs.