FEU mechanism in the European Union

From 1 January 2025, Regulation (EU) 2023/1805 of the European Parliament and of the Council shall apply with the exception of Articles 8 and 9, which already apply from 31 August 2024 on the use of renewable and low carbon fuels in maritime transport and amending Directive 2009/16/EC.

The primary objective of the Regulation is to enhance the consistent use of renewable and low-carbon fuels and substitute energy sources in maritime transport across the Union, in line with the objective of achieving climate neutrality across the Union by 2050 at the latest, while ensuring the smooth operation of maritime transport, regulatory certainty in the deployment of renewable and low-carbon fuels and sustainable technologies, and avoiding distortions in the internal market.

Uniform imposing rules are thus defined:

a) A reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions intensity of energy consumption from ships calling at, staying in or leaving ports under the jurisdiction of a Member State;

b) an obligation to use shore-side electricity or to use zero-emission technology in ports under the jurisdiction of a Member State.

The regulation applies to all ships of more than 5,000 gross tonnage which are used for the carriage of passengers or cargo for commercial purposes, irrespective of their flag and refers to:

c) energy consumed while at berth in a port of call under the jurisdiction of a Member State,

d) the total energy consumed on voyages from a port of call under the jurisdiction of a Member State to a port of call under the jurisdiction of a Member State,

e) notwithstanding b), half of the energy consumed during the voyage to or from the port of call located in the outermost region under the jurisdiction of a Member State,

f) half of the energy consumed during the voyage to or from a port of call under the jurisdiction of a Member State, where the previous or subsequent port of call is under the jurisdiction of a third country.

The requirements of the Regulation do not include (Article 2, p.7 Regulation (EU) 2023/1805):

– warships
– naval auxiliary vessels
– fishing vessels or fish processing vessels,
– wooden ships of simple construction,
– ships not propelled by mechanical means,
– vessels owned or operated by public authorities and used solely for non-commercial purposes.

As required by the above regulation:

1. By 31 August 2024, companies shall submit to verifiers a monitoring plan
for each of their ships, indicating therein the method chosen from those set out in Annex I for monitoring and reporting the quantity, type and emission factor of the energy consumption of the vessel, and other relevant information.The monitoring methods defined in (EU) 2015/757 (correct Directive, as pointed out in app. I to Regulation (EU) 2023/1805) include:

(a) use of fuel delivery documents,
(b) monitoring of bunker oil tanks on board the vessel,
(c) use of flow meters to measure fuel in the related combustion processes, or
(d) direct measurement of CO₂ emissions,

selected for monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and reporting of other relevant information related to the vessel’s emissions reductions, including the use of zero emission technology (ZET), electricity requirements of the mooring vessel, description of the vessel’s wind propulsion systems (if applicable).

2. From 1 January 2025, on the basis of the monitoring plan referred to in Article 8 and following the assessment of that plan by the verifier, companies shall monitor andrecord the information in Article 15 for each ship calling at or departing from a port of call and for each voyage referred to in Article 2(1)

3. As from 31 January 2026 of the verification period, undertakings shall provide the verifier with a report per vessel (referred to as “FuelEU report“) containing all the information referred to in Article 15(1) and the monitoring data and documentation referred to in Article 7(4) for the reporting period concerned.

4. Following the verification referred to in Articles 11, 12 and 13, the verifier shall assess the quality, completeness and accuracy of the FuelEU report. For this purpose, the verifier shall use all the information contained in the FuelEU database, including information on port calls in accordance with Article 6.

5. Where the verification assessment does not indicate misstatements or non-conformities
with this Regulation, or where the reported misstatements or nonconformities have been corrected and do not lead to material misstatements, the verifier shall issue a verification report to the company stating that the FuelEU report complies with Regulation (EU) 2023/1805. This document shall be issued by 30 June during the verification period provided that the ship does not have a compliance deficit, following the possible application of Articles 20 and 21, has not made any non-compliant port calls and complies with the obligation set out in Article 24.

6. Where FuelEU penalties referred to in Article 23(2) or (5) are due, the competent authority of the administering State shall issue a FuelEU compliance document for the vessel concerned by 30 June during the verification period, provided that an amount equal to the FuelEU penalties has been paid.

The PRS (Polish Register of Shipping), meeting the requirements of the European Commission when entrusted with the role of FEU system verifier, will be involved in the following processes:

• assessment of monitoring plans,
• verification of annual/partial emission reports,
• participate in contacts with owners and operators of vessels flying the Polish flag and
• issuing the required documents of compliance in cases where FuelEU penalties have not been previously imposed on the vessel.

Operations are conducted excluding the USA, Canada and their dependent territories.

Along with Regulation (EU) 2023/1805, appropriately related documents such as:

REGULATION (EU) 2023/1804 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 13 September 2023 on the development of alternative fuels infrastructure and repealing Directive 2014/94/EU

COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2024/2027 of 26 July 2024 on verification actions under Regulation (EU) 2023/1805 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the use of renewable and low-carbon fuels for maritime transport and amending Directive 2009/16/EC

COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2024/2031 of 26 July 2024 on a template for the monitoring plans under Regulation (EU) 2023/1805 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the use of renewable and low-carbon fuels for maritime transport and amending Directive 2009/16/EC

COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2023/2449 of 6 November 2023 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) 2015/757 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards templates for monitoring plans, emission reports, partial emission reports, compliance documents and company-level reports and repealing Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1927

REGULATION (EC) No 765/2008 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 9 July 2008 setting out the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance relating to the marketing of products and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 339/93 ,

COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2025/192 of 9 September 2024 on procedures for the accreditation of verifiers under Regulation (EU) 2023/1805 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the use of renewable and low-carbon fuels for maritime transport and amending Directive 2009/16/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council,

REGULATION (EU) 2015/757 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 29 April 2015, as amended ((EU) 2023/957, (EU) 2023/2776) and supplemented by (EU) 2023/2849 and implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2449 on the monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon dioxide emissions from maritime transport and amending Directive 2009/16/EC.