Attachment

THE JOINT COMMITTEE,

Having regard to the Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the linking of their greenhouse gas emissions trading systems^f1 (hereinafter ‘the Agreement’), and in particular Article 13(2) thereof,

Whereas:

Articles 11 to 13 of the Agreement have been provisionally applied since its signature on 23 November 2017.

Article 13(2) of the Agreement provides that the Joint Committee may amend the Annexes to the Agreement.

The Appendix to this Decision contains amendments to Annexes I and II to the Agreement, which update relevant aspects of the original Annexes I and II that were agreed in 2015. It also provides for a provisional solution to operationalise the link between the EU ETS and the ETS of Switzerland.

In accordance with section B of Annex I to the Agreement, the Union should, pursuant to Article 25a of Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council^f2, as amended by Directive (EU) 2018/410 of the European Parliament and of the Council^f3, exclude incoming flights from aerodromes situated in the territory of Switzerland from the scope of the EU ETS. This does not affect the coverage of aircraft operators by the EU ETS, which is based on Annex I to Directive 2003/87/EC which provides that the category of activities to which Directive 2003/87/EC applies includes all flights that arrive at, or depart from, an aerodrome situated in the territory of a Member State.

Annex I to the Agreement should be reviewed in accordance with Article 13(7) of the Agreement with a view to maintaining the current compatibility of the EU ETS and the ETS of Switzerland for the trading period 2021-2030. It should be ensured that the revision of Annex I to the Agreement, as a minimum, preserves the integrity of the respective domestic emission reduction commitments of the Union and Switzerland and the integrity and orderly functioning of their carbon markets. Carbon leakage and distortion of competition between linked systems are to be avoided,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: