Poland will next month prepare a tender for an EUA auction provider in a process expected to confirm the winner by Q1 2016 at the earliest, an environment ministry official said on Tuesday.

The ministry must first wait until the now-completed national law applying the ETS Directive enters onto the statute books, expected in mid-September.

“The tender procedure will be open both to Polish and foreign economic operators … We estimate that the entire process will conclude in the first quarter of 2016 at the earliest,” the official said, in response to emailed questions.

The UK and Germany already host their own sales, opting out of using a common EU platform and using UK-based exchange ICE Futures Europe and Germany-based EEX respectively.

As the common EU provider, EEX has been hosting Poland’s auctions until the country’s much-delayed sale platform is ready.

EEX hosts sales approximately every two months, with the last one this year due on Nov. 18.

Any changes to next year’s auction calendar due to a new platform are unlikely to have much market impact as Polish sales represent less than 3% of annual sale volumes.

The Warsaw Stock Exchange has experience in hosting Poland’s carbon sales, having sold a small number of Phase 2 EUAs in 2013.

By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com