CEN Standard

What is the CEN EN16325 standard on guarantees about? 

RED art.19 imposes member states to ensure their GO system complies with EN16325 GO standard. 

EN16325 exists since 2013 while in 2020 its revision was opened, with a view to 

1. include non-electrical energy carriers like gases (including hydrogen) and heating and cooling, 

2. include relevant updates from the regulatory and market context 

What is the difference between CEN EN16325 and EECS ? 

• CEN has taken the EECS Rules as its basis and has evolved from there in dialogue between private and public sector within CEN-CENELEC 

• EN16325 is less frequently amendable, it is updated in a yes/no vote regarding its full package. The recent update took 5 years of discussion to come to consensus.
  
  EECS Rules are updated frequently in a democratic vote per topic by governmentally appointed GO issuing bodies, in a carefully designed decision making structure. 

• EN16325 focussed on reliability, accuracy and fraud-resistance.
   
  EECS also strongly builds on these principles, yet on top, includes more detailed harmonisation, including formatting specifications. That enhances efficiency of international transfers of GOs. Such detailed harmonisation needs a framework that enables frequent updates when needed – AIB’s decision making structure caters for this, while the CEN framework cannot accommodate such. 

• CEN is a legally enforced standard, EECS is a voluntary but contractually binding standard. 
   
  CEN and EECS both imply scheme rules for guarantees of origin, while EECS entails a cooperation framework on top. The contractual engagements of the AIB members go further than only certificate handling and include allocation of liabilities of multiple parties with whom they interact. 

What impact has the CEN vote? What are we doing next? 

Wait for the publication of the CEN EN16325, expecting editorial updates compared to the version that was submitted to the vote. National Standardisation Committees will translate this into national standards by November 2025. 

EECS is already largely synchronized to the voted version of the CEN standard (because: 

• CEN EN16325 GO standard was built on EECS 

• EECS has already been subject to multiple updates in recent years based on topics that had already reached consensus in CEN) 

AIB members will discuss the further synchronization of EECS towards CEN, as they anyway are bound to implement both standards. Topics include coding of energy sources and technologies, issuance deadlines, etc. 

We are not expecting any ground-breaking changes for the market.

Why AIB is still needed even now a legally binding EN16325 GO standard is available?

• EECS still have a great advantage compared to CEN. In comparison to the CEN standard, EECS Rules are updated frequently in a democratic vote per topic by governmentally appointed GO issuing bodies, in a carefully designed decision making structure.

• EECS offers more details than CEN and due to AIB’s agile decision-making structure can dynamically react to changed needs of issuing bodies.

• Both CEN and EECS are scheme rules for guarantees of origin, but EECS entails a cooperation framework on top. The contractual engagements of the AIB members go further than only certificate handling and include allocation of liabilities of stakeholders.

• Quality assurance framework and periodic audits of national GO systems

• Operation of the IT-Hub for reliable and efficient cross-registry transfer of GOs
• Cooperation and inspiration between peers working at 39 issuing bodies in 31 countries