The European Commission has given Romania and Estonia the green light to hand out a total 12.88 million free EU carbon allowances to their utilities for their 2015 emissions, according to a notice published on the EU executive’s website late Thursday.

The two countries received approval for their so-called ‘derogation’ plans from the commission on Thursday, with Romania now cleared to hand out 9.21 million and Estonia 3.67 million.

With the Apr. 30 EU ETS compliance deadline approaching, the move means utilities in those countries will likely be able to surrender those allowances against their 2015 emissions.

Under Article 10c of the ETS Directive, seven mostly eastern EU member states can request free EUAs for their utilities provided the governments show they have made, or have plans to make, investments to decarbonise their energy sectors.

The seven have a combined 2015 derogation quota of 114.52 million EUAs, according to the European Commission’s update.

Estonia and Romania countries are the second and third countries to receive the OK from the commission for last year’s allocations after the Czech Republic was approved last September to hand out 20.62 million units.

Bulgaria, Cyprus, Lithuania and Poland – with a combined 2015 derogation allowance quota of 78.77 million allowances – have not yet received approval.

The commission has not yet published an update for this year’s allocations.

By Mike Szabo – mike@carbon-pulse.com