Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/2084 of 14 December 2020 amending and correcting Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2067 on the verification of data and on the accreditation of verifiers pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance)

This Regulation shall apply to the verification of greenhouse gas emissions and tonne-kilometre data occurring from 1 January 2019, reported pursuant to Article 14 of Directive 2003/87/EC, and to the verification of data relevant for the update of ex ante benchmarks and for the determination of free allocation to installations pursuant to Article 10a of that Directive.’;

Where a verifier demonstrates its conformity with the criteria laid down in the relevant harmonised standards as defined in point (9) of Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, or parts thereof, the references of which have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, it shall, with the exception of Articles 7(1), 7(4), 22, 27(1), 28, 31 and 32 of this Regulation, be presumed to comply with the requirements set out in Chapters II and III of this Regulation in so far as the applicable harmonised standards cover those requirements.’;

1 By way of derogation from Article 21(1), where serious, extraordinary and unforeseeable circumstances, outside the control of the operator or aircraft operator, prevent the verifier from carrying out a physical site visit and where these circumstances cannot, after using all reasonable efforts, be overcome, the verifier may decide, subject to the approval of the competent authority in accordance with paragraph 3 of this Article, to carry out a virtual site visit. The verifier shall take measures to reduce the verification risk to an acceptable level to obtain reasonable assurance that the operator’s or aircraft operator’s report is free from material misstatements. A physical visit to the site of the installation or aircraft operator shall be carried out without undue delay. The decision to carry out a virtual site visit shall be based on the outcome of the risk analysis and after determining that the conditions for carrying out a virtual site visit are met. The verifier shall inform the operator or aircraft operator thereof without undue delay.

2 The operator or aircraft operator shall submit an application to the competent authority requesting the competent authority to approve the verifier’s decision to carry out a virtual site visit. The application shall include the following elements: (a) evidence that it is not possible to carry out a physical site visit because of the serious, extraordinary and unforeseeable circumstances, outside the control of the operator or aircraft operator; (b) information on how the virtual site visit will be carried out; (c) the information on the outcome of the risk analysis by the verifier; (d) evidence of the measures taken by the verifier to reduce the verification risk to an acceptable level to obtain reasonable assurance that the operator’s or aircraft operator’s report is free from material misstatements.

3 On an application submitted by the operator or aircraft operator concerned, the competent authority shall decide whether to approve the verifier’s decision to carry out a virtual site visit, taking into consideration the elements specified in paragraph 2.

4 By way of derogation from paragraph 3, where a large number of installations or aircraft operators are affected by the similar serious, extraordinary and unforeseeable circumstances, outside the control of the operator or aircraft operator, and immediate action is needed because of legally imposed national health reasons, the competent authority may authorise verifiers to carry out virtual site visits without a need for an individual approval referred to in paragraph 3 provided that: (a) the competent authority has established that there are serious extraordinary and unforeseeable circumstances, outside the control of the operator or aircraft operator and immediate action is needed because of legally imposed national health reasons; (b) the operator or aircraft operator informs the competent authority about the verifier’s decision to carry out a virtual site visit, including the elements specified in paragraph 2. The competent authority shall review the information provided by the operator or aircraft operator in accordance with point (b) during the assessment of the operator’s or aircraft operator’s report and inform the national accreditation body about the outcome of the assessment.’;

‘4 Where transferred CO2 is subtracted in accordance with Article 49 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2066 or transferred N2O is not counted as emitted in accordance with Article 50 of that Regulation, and the CO2 or N2O transferred is measured by both the transferring and receiving installation, the verifier shall check whether differences between the measured values at both installations can be explained by the uncertainty of the measurement systems and whether the correct arithmetic average of the measured values has been used in the emission reports of both installations.’;

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. It shall apply from 1 January 2021.