The Commission laid out the rules allowing ten member states to hand out free greenhouse allowances to power stations, instead of selling them.
Any of the 10 member states that wish to allocate free allowances to power stations must submit an application by 30 September 2011, the Commission said in a statement.
It said the number of free emission allowances that may be handed out to power plants is limited and cannot exceed 70% of the allowances needed to cover emissions for the supply of electricity to domestic consumers in 2013.
„In each year following 2013, this percentage has to decrease and, in 2020, has to be 0%,” the Commission added.
The 10 states eligible to allocate free allowances are Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Poland.