Last updated: 15 January 2026
IMPORTATION OF HIGH CARBON FOOTPRINT GOODS: THE PURCHASE OF CBAM CERTIFICATES - MANDATORY STARTING 2026
Starting with January 1, 2026, certain goods imported in the EU from third states shall bear costs for the carbon emissions generated in manufacturing them. Thus, according with the Regulation EU 2023/956, goods as cement, cast iron, steel, aluminium, fertilizers, hydrogen or electricity1 can only be imported in the EU by an „authorised CBAM declarant”.
CBAM Regulation does not apply to goods intended for military use. Also, do not fall under the regulation the electricity and hydrogen produced on the continental shelf or in the exclusive economic zone of a Member State or of certain countries or territories explicitly provided for in the regulation.
The purchase of CBAM certificates becomes mandatory at the end of a transition period, October 1, 2023 – December 31, 2025, imposed under the Regulation, during which importers were subject only to reporting obligations, without financial costs.
Role of CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism)
CBAM is not a custom tariff, but a tool helping the EU charge the same price for carbon on domestic and third state imported products for the purpose of avoiding production delocalisation in countries with low environmental standards and pollution-based competition. The objective is to protect industries subject to EU ETS and foster investments in cleaner technologies, as provided in the recitals 11–14 of the Regulation.
Stakeholders falling under CBAM and how it works
EU importers, therefore, the Romanian ones as well, must obtain the status of „authorised CBAM declarant” and enrol in the CBAM Registry2 either directly or via a customs representative, failing which, the goods targeted by the regulation can no longer move in the EU.
Authorised CBAM declarants are registered in the CBAM Registry, held by the Commission.
The procedural details on the communications between the applicant, the competent authority and the Commission, on the standard format of the application for authorisation and the procedures for submitting such an application through the CBAM registry, the procedure to be followed by the competent authority and the deadlines for processing authorisation applications should be laid down by subsequent implementing acts.
Under the CBAM, EU “authorised CBAM declarants” are required to purchase CBAM certificates corresponding to the amount of CO₂ emissions embodied in imported goods.
The certificates are sold by Member States via a central platform, at a price calculated on the basis of the price of EU ETS certificates. The importers must maintain a minimum number of certificates throughout the year and surrender annually (by September 30) the number of certificates corresponding to the amount of emissions declared for the imports of the previous year.
The certificates surrendered are removed from the registry. The importers may re-sell a portion of the certificates bought in excess in compliance with the conditions and within the deadlines laid down in the Regulation. This way, the CBAM ensures that the imported goods bear carbon costs equivalent with the EU production without imposing customs tariffs but via an administrative mechanism for the purchase, submission and adjustment of certificates.
By September 30 of each year and for the first time in 2027 for 2026, each authorised CBAM declarant shall submit a CBAM return for the previous calendar year via the CBAM Registry.
Where, in a given calendar year, the total net mass of imported goods under all CN codes aggregated does not cumulatively exceed the single mass-based threshold of 50 tonnes, the importer shall be exempted from the CBAM obligations.
The importer, including an importer with the status of an authorised CBAM declarant, shall declare that exemption in the relevant customs declaration. The European Commission shall annually check by April 30, whether this threshold covers no more than 1% of the emissions embedded in the imports and may review it, if necessary, by means of delegated acts.
Any new threshold shall apply from January 1 of the following year. This rule shall not apply to imports of electricity and hydrogen.
Sale of the CBAM certificates
Starting with January 1, 2027, Member States sell CBAM certificates on the joint central platform of the authorised CBAM declarants established in each state, for a price calculated based on EU ETS. The said platform is managed by the Commission as a result of a joint procurement procedure between the Commission and the Member States.
The price of the certificates shall be the average of the prices of EU ETS allowances in the previous week and the Commission shall officially publish this price for each working week. For calendar weeks in which no auctions are scheduled on the auction platform, the price of CBAM certificates shall be the average of the prices of EU ETS allowance in the last week when there were auctions held on the auction platform.
The Commission shall publish the average price on its website or in any other appropriate manner on the first working day of the following calendar week.
Surrender of CBAM certificates
As an "authorised CBAM declarant", the importer will report annually the emissions embodied in imported goods or in imported goods that have resulted in imported processed products and will surrender a number of certificates corresponding to these emissions. The emissions data must be verifiable and based on the emission calculation methods set out in the Regulation in Annex IV.
If the producer in the country of origin has already paid a carbon price, it may reduce the number of certificates due, provided that evidence is kept for 4 years.
Certificates shall be surrendered for the first time for the imports of 2026, on September 30, 2027.
During the year, the declarant must have at the end of each quarter in its account in the CBAM Registry a stock of CBAM certificates covering at least 50% of the emissions embedded in all the goods imported since the beginning of the calendar year. If this condition is not met, the Commission shall inform the national authority, which shall grant a one-month timeframe for regularisation. The notification and response are recorded in the CBAM Registry.
Repurchase of CBAM certificates
After the annual surrender, the authorised CBAM declarant can request, by October 31, the repurchase of the certificates existing in their account.
The number of certificates that the Member State can repurchase, via the Commission, at the purchase price, shall be limited to the total number of CBAM certificates that the authorised CBAM declarant had an obligation to purchase in the calendar year.
Where an authorised CBAM declarant who has been purchasing CBAM certificates in a calendar year on the basis of an expectation of exceeding the single mass-based threshold does not exceed such a threshold, all those CBAM certificates shall be repurchased upon request of the authorised CBAM declarant.
By way of derogation, CBAM certificates purchased in 2027 in respect of the embedded emissions for the year 2026 may only be repurchased in 2027.
Cancellation of the CBAM certificates
On November 1 of every year, certificates older than one year and unused are cancelled by the Commission without compensation, to avoid their accumulation for speculative purposes. In cases of pending litigation, the cancellation is stayed for the certificates challenged.
By way of derogation of this rule, on 1 November 2027, the Commission shall cancel any CBAM certificates purchased in respect of the embedded emissions for the year 2026. Those CBAM certificates shall be cancelled without any compensation.
Where there is an ongoing litigation, the cancellation of the certificates is stayed limited to the challenged amount.
Penalties for failure to comply with CBAM obligations
Failure by the importer to surrender the certificates by September 30 of each year, a penalty identical to that for excess emissions in the EU ETS is applied, increased in accordance with Directive 2003/87/EC (Art. 16(3)).
The penalty is applied for each certificate not surrendered and does not replace the obligation to surrender them. If the goods are brought into the EU by a person other than the authorised declarant, the penalties increase significantly and can be 3–5 times higher.
The penalties are enforced in accordance with national law, and the decisions are transmitted to the Commission.
The Regulation also sanctions any practice aimed at avoiding CBAM obligations without economic justification. This concerns, for example, the reclassification of products under another tariff code or the splitting of shipments to avoid reporting.
CBAM – Transition timeframe (October 1, 2023 – December 31, 2025)
Until actual payment obligations were introduced, importers were only required to report quarterly data on imported quantities, direct and indirect emissions related to production, and any carbon costs paid in the country of origin. Reporting was done on a per-production installation basis. Goods re-entering the EU and products resulting from outward processing were not reported.
Notes
- The list of goods and greenhouse gases is presented in Annex I to the Regulation, with their classification under the Combined Nomenclature (CN) codes.
- The CBAM Registry is a database kept by the Commission containing data on CBAM certificates; these data are made available to customs authorities and competent authorities automatically and in real time.