Article 6 Initial checks

The initial checks performed by the Commission pursuant to Article 37(4) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 may include:

1. (a)

   an assessment whether all categories required under the modalities, procedures and guidelines for the transparency framework for action and support referred to in Article 13 of the Paris Agreement set out in the Annex to Decision 18/CMA.1 and all greenhouse gases referred to in Annex V of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 are reported by the Member State;

2. (b)

   an assessment whether emissions by sources and removals by sinks data time series are consistent;

3. (c)

   an assessment whether implied emission factors across Member States are comparable taking into account the IPCC default emission factors for different national circumstances;

4. (d)

   an assessment of the use of ‘Not Estimated’ notation keys where IPCC Tier 1 methodologies exist and where the use of the notation key is not justified in accordance with point 32 of the Annex to Decision 18/CMA.1;

5. (e)

   an analysis of recalculations performed for the greenhouse gas inventory submission, including whether the recalculations are based on methodological changes;

6. (f)

   a comparison of the verified greenhouse gas emissions reported under the European Union’s emission trading system with the greenhouse gas emissions reported pursuant to Article 26(3) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999;

7. (g)

   a comparison of the results of Eurostat’s reference approach with the Member States’ reference approach;

8. (h)

   a comparison of the results of Eurostat’s sectoral approach with the Member States’ sectoral approach;

9. (i)

   an assessment whether issues from earlier Union initial checks and reviews as well as recommendations from UNFCCC reviews have been implemented by the Member State;

10. (j)

    an assessment of the accuracy of Member States’ emissions by sources and removals by sinks estimates in relation to Union key categories;

11. (k)

    an assessment of the transparency and completeness of the methodological descriptions reported by Member States for the Union key categories.

12. (l)

    an assessment of monitoring and reporting of emissions by sources and removals by sinks in the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector pursuant to Part 3 of Annex V to Regulation (EU) 2018/1999, including the assignment of key categories, Tier methodology applied, and a comparison of reported land use and land use change activity data with information derived from the Union and Member State programmes and surveys.