25 January 2011: The European Commission has suspended transactions, except for allocation and surrender of allowances, in all EU Emission Trading System (ETS) national registries from 19 January 2011 until at least 26 January 2011, due to recurring security breaches in national registries over the period December 2010-January 2011.

Member States have unanimously endorsed the action taken by the Commission. Agreement has been reached on guidance for the minimum requirements that each national registry has to fulfill in order to resume normal operations. Each member State has been asked to urgently provide the European Commission with an independent report confirming that the minimum security requirements have been put in place. The Commission is now awaiting these reports from member States before national registries are fully re-activated.

According to the Commission, the practical implications of the suspension so far are limited to less than a fifth of the normal daily market volume, with no effect on market prices. The minimum security requirements are confidential, and are designed to ensure that every company holding allowances in a national registry has an adequate level of protection that the allowances are secure in this registry account. [EU Press Release 25 January] [EU Press Release 19 January]