The UK and German carbon registries expect to be among the first to reopen after an EU-wide suspension. This is likely to happen late this week or over the course of next week.
A spokeswoman from the UK`s Environment Agency, in charge of the registry, confirmed that the agency had now sent a report to the European Commission showing it is meeting the newly agreed security standards.
This kind of independent report is a prerequisite for registries before being allowed to reopen, after the EU-wide suspension in the wake of hacker attacks and thefts across Europe in the second half of January.
"The UK registry is widely seen to be among the most secure in the EU. We expect our report will fully satisfy the Commission, and that the UK registry will reopen as soon as possible," the UK spokeswoman said.
The Commission will now need time to evaluate the UK registry report. It has not officially said how long this might take. Initially, the Commission expected to spend around three days on the early reports from registries with already advanced security standards. But this estimated deadline appears to be slipping.
For instance, the German registry - another likely candidate for early reopening - confirmed last week that it had sent its report to the Commission, but has not yet been flagged up as cleared for business.
The Commission will announce on its website all registries that are ready to reopen 24 hours ahead of any restart. No such notice had been posted by 16:00 (UK time) on Wednesday. This takes the earliest possible reopening to late Thursday - but Friday is more likely.
As it has taken the Commission around one week to assess the German report, it is feasible it will spend the same amount of time on the UK report. That would take UK reopening into the middle of next week.
(THE ICIS HEREN REPORTS - EDCM 6022 / 2 February 2011)
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