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1. By 21 November 2024, the Commission shall ensure that a Union database is set up to enable the tracing of liquid and gaseous renewable fuels and recycled carbon fuels (the ‘Union database’).

2. Member States shall require the relevant economic operators to enter in a timely manner accurate data into the Union database on the transactions made and the sustainability characteristics of the fuels subject to those transactions, including their life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, starting from their point of production to the moment they are placed on the market in the Union. For the purpose of entering data into the Union database, the interconnected gas system shall be considered to be a single mass balance system. Data on the injection and withdrawal of renewable gaseous fuels shall be provided in the Union database. Data on whether support has been provided for the production of a specific consignment of fuel, and if so, on the type of support scheme, shall also be entered into the Union database. Those data may be entered into the Union database via national databases.

Where appropriate for the purpose of improving the traceability of data along the entire supply chain, the Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 35 to supplement this Directive by further extending the scope of the data to be included in the Union database to cover relevant data from the point of production or collection of the raw material used for the fuel production. Member States shall require fuel suppliers to enter the data necessary to verify compliance with the requirements laid down in Article 25(1), first subparagraph, into the Union database. Notwithstanding the first, second and third subparagraphs, for gaseous fuels injected into the Union’s interconnected gas infrastructure, economic operators shall, in the event that the Member State decides to complement a mass balance system by a system of guarantees of origin, enter into the Union database data on the transactions made and on the sustainability characteristics and other relevant data, such as greenhouse gas emissions of the fuels up to the injection point to the interconnected gas infrastructure.

3. Member States shall have access to the Union database for the purposes of monitoring and data verification.

4. Where guarantees of origin have been issued for the production of a consignment of renewable gas, Member States shall ensure that those guarantees of origin are transferred to the Union database at the moment when a consignment of renewable gas is registered in the Union database and are cancelled after the consignment of renewable gas is withdrawn from the Union’s interconnected gas infrastructure. Such guarantees of origin, once transferred, shall not be tradable outside the Union database.

5. Member States shall ensure in their national legal framework that the accuracy and completeness of the data entered by economic operators into the database is verified, for instance by using certification bodies in the framework of voluntary or national schemes recognised by the Commission pursuant to Article 30(4), (5) and (6) and which may be complemented by a system of guarantees of origin. Such voluntary or national schemes may use third-party data systems as intermediaries to collect the data, provided that such use has been notified to the Commission.

Each Member State may use an already existing national database aligned to and linked with the Union database via an interface, or establish a national database, which can be used by economic operators as a tool for collecting and declaring data and for entering and transferring those data into the Union database, provided that:

(a) the national database complies with the Union database including in terms of the timeliness of data transmission, the typology of data sets transferred, and the protocols for data quality and data verification;

(b) Member States ensure that the data entered into the national database are instantly transferred to the Union database. Member States may establish national databases in accordance with national law or practice, such as to take into account stricter national requirements, as regards sustainability criteria. Such national databases shall not hinder the overall traceability of sustainable consignments of raw materials or fuels to be entered into the Union database in accordance with this Directive.

The verification of the quality of the data entered into the Union database by means of national databases, the sustainability characteristics of the fuels related to those data, and the final approval of transactions shall be carried out through the Union database alone. The accuracy and completeness of those data shall be verified in accordance with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/996 (). They may be checked by certification bodies. Member States shall notify the detailed features of their national database to the Commission. Following that notification, the Commission shall assess whether the national database complies with the requirements laid down in the third subparagraph. If that is not the case, the Commission may require Member States to take appropriate steps to ensure compliance with those requirements.

6. Aggregated data from the Union database shall be made publicly available, with due regard to the protection of commercially sensitive information, and shall be kept up-to-date. The Commission shall publish and make publicly available annual reports about the data contained in the Union database, including the quantities, the geographical origin and feedstock type of fuels.