Opening aircraft operator holding accounts in the Union Registry
Article 15
1. Within 20 working days from the approval of the monitoring plan of an aircraft operator, the competent authority or aircraft operator shall provide the relevant national administrator with the information set out in Annex VII and shall request the national administrator to open an aircraft operator holding account in the Union Registry. 2. Each aircraft operator shall have one aircraft operator holding account. 3. Aircraft operators performing aviation activities with total annual emissions lower than 25 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year or operating fewer than 243 flights per period for three consecutive four-month period may mandate a natural person or a legal entity to open an aircraft operator holding account and to surrender the allowances pursuant to Article 12(2a) of Directive 2003/87/EC on their behalf. Responsibility for compliance still remains with the aircraft operator. When mandating the natural person or the legal entity, the aircraft operator shall ensure that there is no conflict of interest amongst the mandated person or entity and competent authorities, national administrators, verifiers or other bodies subject to the provisions of Directive 2003/87/EC and the acts adopted for its implementation. In this case, the natural person or legal entity mandated shall provide the information required in accordance with paragraph 1. 4. Within 20 working days of the receipt of a complete set of information in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article and Article 21, the national administrator shall open an aircraft operator holding account for each aircraft operator in the Union Registry or inform the prospective account holder of the refusal to open the account, pursuant to Article 19. 5. An aircraft operator shall have only one aircraft operator holding account.