The European Commission will not set up a centralised platform showing the ID numbers of stolen EU allowances (EUAs), a spokeswoman said on Wednesday (2nd February). This kind of platform has been championed by both exchanges and trader associations, but the EU lacks the legal power to be able to disclose these details.
This means that traders will continue to rely on information on missing EUAs published - if at all - on national registry sites.
The trail of the EUAs stolen in hacker attacks in January this year and in 2010 lead to Sweden, the UK, Romania, Liechtenstein, Germany and Estonia, sources from registries and the companies that fell victim to the thefts have told ICIS Heren.
EUAs are understood to be frozen in at least some of these countries.
Sweden has intercepted around 200,000 EUAs that were stolen from the Austrian government`s account, its energy agency has confirmed.
Some of the EUAs stolen from ČEZ`s and Blackstone Global Ventures` accounts in the Czech Republic are now frozen in the UK, Germany and Estonia, according to registry officials.
A source at Blackstone Global Ventures also said there were reports of some of these EUAs being located in Romania, but ICIS Heren was unable to confirm this.
Swiss cement maker Holcim, which fell victim to a phishing attack on the Romanian registry last year, said the investigation of its missing EUAs had involved Italy, the UK, Liechtenstein, Belgium and Israel.
This does not mean that the EUAs necessarily passed through these registries, however, but that the criminals had ties to these countries. Some of Holcim`s EUAs were earlier returned from the Liechtenstein registry.
Greek cement maker Halyps has said its stolen EUAs are frozen somewhere in Europe, but declined to say where. The investigation reportedly involved Romanian police.