* UK, France, Netherlands, Slovakia, Germany to reopen
* EU Commission to give 24 hours notice when others reopen
LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The European Commission, which
halted spot trade in its carbon market two weeks ago due to
thefts, said it will reopen national emissions registries in
five countries on Friday after being told security is in place.
Registries in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovakia and
the Britain will resume normal operations on Friday at 0700 GMT
(0800 CET), the European Union executive said in a statement on
Thursday.
EU sources had told Reuters on Wednesday some registries
were likely to resume operations on either Friday or Monday.
[]
The European Commission halted spot trade after permits
called EU Allowances (EUAs) vanished from national electronic
carbon accounts, or registries, in Greece, Austria and the Czech
Republic. []
It shut down national registries, which administer and
transfer EUAs, on Jan. 19 until they complied with stricter
security requirements.
The closure stopped EUAs trading on the spot market. The
forwards and futures markets, on which the bulk of EUA trade
takes place, were not affected.
The emissions market, in which companies with a surplus of
permits to emit greenhouse gas can sell them to companies with a
shortage, is the EU's chief weapon against climate change.
The bloc's executive expects several more security reports
from national registry authorities in the next few days, and the
commission will continue to give advance notice 24 hours ahead
when other registries come back online, it added.
Registries in the UK, Germany France and the Netherlands
confirmed they would be back online on Friday. Slovakia's
registry was not immediately available to comment.
"The UK will continue to press the European Commission to
ensure that registry security across Europe is raised above this
level. This is vital to ensure continued confidence in this
growing market," said Greg Barker, UK climate change minister,
in a statement on Thursday.
ICE Futures Europe <ICE.N>, the EU's largest emissions
exchange, is due to resume spot carbon transactions on Monday.
[]
The exchange was not immediately available to comment on
whether the date will be brought forward.
A spokesman from France's BlueNext said the exchange had no
comment to make yet on reopening.
(Writing by Nina Chestney; Reporting by Ben Deighton in
Brussels, Ivana Sekularac in Amsterdam, Vera Eckert in
Frankfurt; Editing by Anthony Barker)
