Leipzig, 18 November 2009 

European Energy Exchange AG (EEX) will run the primary auction for European emission allowances (EUA) in Germany on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment. EEX AG was awarded the contract regarding the auction which is scheduled to be launched in January 2010 by the ministry. 

Thus, in cooperation with Eurex, a concept is applied through which emission rights can be offered for auctioning in the simplest and safest manner on the EEX platform where further trading on emission rights is executed in a transparent and structured way. This is due to the fact that all the market participants can be reached and the existing professional and reliable settlement structures can be used there.

“EEX stands for competition and transparency on the energy markets and offers ideal preconditions for the EUA auctions planned by the federal government“, Dr. Hans- Bernd Menzel, Chief Executive Officer of EEX AG, comments. Moreover, he sees this as a further important step towards the improvement of the efficiency of emissions trading.

“Within the European emissions trading system Germany is the biggest issuer of emission allowances. As the designated platform and together with our partner Eurex we are looking forward to implementing the auction for emission allowances for the federal government.”

The way for auctions was paved with the Ordinance on Auctioning of Emission Allowances by the Federal Ministry of the Environment, which was adopted by the German Bundestag at the beginning of July 2009. 10 percent of the German emission allowances will be auctioned off annually for the years 2010 and 2011.

All trading participants admitted to trading in emission allowances on EEX can take part in the auction without any further preconditions regarding licensing. From the very beginning, this also includes all trading participants taking part in the existing Eurex cooperation on the Derivatives Market.

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