The European Commission has cleared Poland to hand out 43.6 million free EU Allowances to its utilities to cover 2015 emissions, roughly two-thirds of the maximum 66.7 million earmarked to the country for last year, the bloc’s executive said in an update posted to its website late Tuesday.

Poland is the largest recipient under an EU programme to help utilities in poorer member states decarbonise their generation operations.

With the annual Apr. 30 EU ETS compliance deadline approaching, the move means Polish utilities expecting to get a share of these allowances will be able to use them against their 2015 emissions.

Under Article 10c of the ETS Directive, seven mostly eastern EU member states can request free EUAs for their utilities to help the sector reduce its carbon emissions.

The countries are set a declining maximum quota each year, but must show they have made, or have plans to make, the necessary investments against any allocations.

The seven countries have a combined 2015 derogation limit of 114.5 million EUAs, according to the European Commission data.

With Poland’s approval, five member states have now been cleared to hand out a maximum 77 million allowances for 2015, with only Lithuania and Bulgaria awaiting the green light to hand out their combined maximum of 10.2 million.

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

By Mike Szabo – mike@carbon-pulse.com