A Union Registry for the trading period of the Union emissions trading scheme commencing on 1 January 2013 and subsequent periods is established.

The central administrator shall operate and maintain the Union Registry, including its technical infrastructure.

Member States shall use the Union Registry for the purposes of meeting their obligations under Article 19 of Directive 2003/87/EC and Article 11 of Decision No 406/2009/EC and to ensure accurate accounting of allowances, AEAs and to the credit entitlement within the scope of this Regulation. The Union Registry shall provide national administrators and account holders with the processes set out in this Regulation.

The central administrator shall ensure that the Union Registry conforms to the functional and technical specifications for data exchange standards for registry systems under the Kyoto Protocol elaborated pursuant to Decision 12/CMP.1 and have regard to the hardware, network, software and security requirements set out in the data exchange and technical specifications provided for in Article 105 of this Regulation.