Accounts shall be in one of the following status: ‘open’, ‘blocked’, ‘closure pending’ or ‘closed’. For particular years, accounts may also have the status ‘excluded’.

No processes may be initiated from blocked accounts, except for the processes specified in Articles 22, 31 and 56.

Before an account is closed, it may be set to status ‘closure pending’ for the period of available remedies against closure or until the conditions of the closure are fulfilled but not longer than 10 years. No processes may be initiated from accounts in status ‘closure pending’, it may not acquire units and all access to these accounts shall be suspended. An account having the status ‘closure pending’ can be set to ‘open’ only if all conditions for opening an account are fulfilled.

No processes may be initiated from closed accounts. A closed account may not be re-opened, and may not acquire units.

Upon exclusion of an installation from the EU ETS pursuant to Articles 27 or 27a of Directive 2003/87/EC, the national administrator shall set the corresponding operator holding account to excluded status for the duration of the exclusion.

Upon notification from the competent authority that an aircraft operator's flights are no longer included in the EU ETS in accordance with Annex I to Directive 2003/87/EC in a given year, the national administrator shall set the corresponding aircraft operator holding account to excluded status, after giving prior notice to the aircraft operator concerned and until notification from the competent authority that an aircraft operator's flights are again included in the EU ETS.

No processes may be initiated from excluded accounts, except for the processes specified in Articles 22 and 57 and the processes specified in Articles 31 and 56 corresponding to the period where the account status was not set to excluded.