A Union Registry for the trading period of the Union emissions trading scheme commencing on 1 January 2013 and subsequent periods is hereby established.

The central administrator shall operate and maintain the Union Registry.

Member States shall use the Union Registry for the purposes of meeting their obligations under Article 19 of Directive 2003/87/EC and to ensure accurate accounting with respect to allowances within the scope of this Regulation. The Union Registry shall provide national administrators and account holders with the processes set out in this Regulation.

The Union Registry shall conform to the functional and technical specifications for data exchange standards for registry systems under the Kyoto Protocol elaborated pursuant to Decision 12/CMP.1 and comply with the hardware, network, software and security requirements set out in the data exchange and technical specifications provided for in Article 79.

An EUTL, to take the form of a standardised electronic database, is hereby established, pursuant to Article 20 of Directive 2003/87/EC, for transactions within the scope of this Regulation. The EUTL shall also serve to record all information relating to the holdings and transfers of Kyoto units made available in accordance with Article 6(2) of Decision No 280/2004/EC.

The central administrator shall operate and maintain the EUTL in accordance with the provisions of this Regulation.

The EUTL shall be capable of checking and recording all processes referred to under this Regulation, and shall conform to the functional and technical specifications for data exchange standards for registry systems under the Kyoto Protocol elaborated pursuant to Decision 12/CMP.1 and comply with the hardware, network and software requirements set out in the data exchange and technical specifications provided for in Article 79.

The EUTL shall be capable of recording all processes described in Chapters III to V.

The Union Registry shall maintain a communication link with the ITL for the purposes of communicating transactions that transfer Kyoto units.

The EUTL shall also maintain a communication link with the ITL for the purposes of recording and checking transfers referred to under paragraph 1.

The Union Registry shall also maintain a direct communication link with the EUTL for the purposes of checking and recording transactions that transfer allowances and the account management processes set out in Chapter III. All transactions involving allowances shall take place within the Union Registry, and shall be recorded and checked by the EUTL.

The central administrator may establish a restricted communication link between the EUTL and the registry of an Accession Country for the purposes of enabling such registries to communicate with the ITL through the EUTL and to record verified emissions data of operators in the EUTL. Those registries must successfully complete all testing and initialisation procedures required of registries before the establishment of this communication link.

Each Member State shall designate a national administrator. The Member State shall access and manage its own accounts and the accounts in the Union Registry under its jurisdiction through its national administrator.

The Member States and the Commission shall ensure that there is no conflict of interest amongst national administrators, the central administrator and holders of accounts.

Each Member State shall notify the Commission of the identity and contact details of its national administrator, including an emergency telephone number to be used in the case of a security incident.

The Commission shall coordinate the implementation of this Regulation with the national administrators of each Member State and the central administrator. In particular, the Commission shall consult the Administrators’ Working Group of the Climate Change Committee on issues and procedures related to the operation of registries and the implementation of this Regulation. By 31 March 2012, the Administrators’ Working Group shall agree on the terms of cooperation between the central administrator and the national administrators, which shall include common operational procedures for the implementation of this Regulation and change and incident management procedures for the Union Registry and technical specifications for the functioning and reliability of the Union Registry and the EUTL. Rules of procedure for the Administrators’ Working Group shall be adopted by the Climate Change Committee.

The central administrator, the competent authorities and national administrators shall only perform processes necessary to carry out their respective functions.