Article 4Quality assurance and quality control programme objectives
1.
The Commission shall manage, maintain and seek to continuously improve the Union greenhouse gas inventory system based on the following quality assurance and quality control programme objectives:
(a)
that the Union greenhouse gas inventory is complete by, where relevant, applying the procedure set out in Article 37(5) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999, in consultation with the Member State concerned;
(b)
that the Union greenhouse gas inventory system provides a transparent aggregation of Member States’ greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks as well as overviews of methodological descriptions for Union key categories, and reflects in a transparent manner the contribution of Member States’ emissions by sources and removals by sinks to the Union greenhouse gas inventory;
(c)
that the total of the Union’s greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks for a reporting year is equal to the sum of Member States’ greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks reported pursuant to paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of Article 26 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 for that same year;
(d)
that the Union greenhouse gas inventory includes a consistent time series of emissions by sources and removals by sinks for all reported years.
2.
The Commission and the Member States shall increase, where possible, the comparability of national greenhouse gas inventories by seeking synergy of methods, activity data, notation keys and the allocation of emissions by sources and removals by sinks by Member States, where appropriate.
3.
The quality assurance and quality control programme objectives of the Union inventory shall complement the quality assurance and quality control programmes objectives implemented by the Member States.
4.
Member States shall ensure the quality of activity data, emission factors and other parameters used for their national greenhouse gas inventory.