EU ETS and the outermost regions: the derogation most ETS calculations miss
In brief
Until 31 December 2030, no EU ETS allowances have to be surrendered for voyages between a port in an outermost region and a port in the same Member State, nor for the port stays directly before or after those voyages. The rule applies automatically, to every ship type, with no application needed. It is not the same as the FuelEU Maritime rule for the same voyages, which is why many ETS tools and spreadsheets miss it.
On a container feeder in the Spain–Canary Islands rotation, applying the derogation to the verified 2025 data cut the number of allowances to surrender by two thirds. If your ships call at the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores or one of the French outermost regions from the mainland of the same country, this is worth checking against your own voyage data – for 2024 and 2025 as well as 2026.
What the rule says
Article 12(3-b) of the EU ETS Directive (2003/87/EC, as amended by Directive (EU) 2023/959) states that no allowances have to be surrendered for emissions released until 31 December 2030 from:
Voyages between a port in an outermost region and a port in the same Member State. This includes voyages between two ports within one outermost region, and between the outermost regions of the same Member State.
The activities within a port in connection with such voyages: the port stays directly before and after an exempt voyage.
The derogation applies automatically. There is no list to be on and nothing to apply for, unlike the small-island derogation, which only covers ports a Member State has notified. It applies to every ship type, including cruise ships. And it only removes the surrender obligation: the emissions are still monitored, verified and reported in full under EU MRV and in the ETS emissions report.
What is not exempt:
A voyage to or from another Member State. Rotterdam to Las Palmas is 100% in scope.
A voyage between outermost regions of different Member States. Las Palmas to Funchal is 100%.
A voyage to or from a third country. Las Palmas to Agadir is 50%, as for any voyage to a non-EU port.
On port stays, the Directive's wording ("activities within a port in connection with such voyages") leaves room for interpretation. In the verified case below, the verifier accepted the port stay at either end of an exempt voyage, including the stay in the mainland port. Some national guidance only describes port stays in the outermost region itself. Agree the treatment with your verifier before you rely on it.
Status of the end date. The derogation runs until 31 December 2030 under current law. On 17 July 2026 the European Commission proposed, as part of its review of the ETS Directive, to extend the maritime derogations to 31 December 2035. That is a proposal; adoption is expected around the first quarter of 2027. European Shipowners (ECSA) have asked for the derogation to be made permanent and extended to all voyages to and from the outermost regions, whichever Member State the other port is in. We follow this and will update this note when the outcome is known.
Which regions and ports count
The outermost regions are the nine listed in Article 349 TFEU. Every port in these regions qualifies; there is no separate port list for this derogation.
Spain – Canary Islands: Las Palmas, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Arrecife (Lanzarote), Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura), Santa Cruz de La Palma
Portugal – Madeira: Funchal, Caniçal
Portugal – Azores: Ponta Delgada, Praia da Vitória, Horta
France – Guadeloupe: Pointe-à-Pitre (Jarry)
France – Martinique: Fort-de-France
France – French Guiana: Dégrad des Cannes
France – Réunion: Port Réunion
France – Mayotte: Longoni
France – Saint-Martin: Galisbay
The Dutch Caribbean (Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Saba, Sint Eustatius), Greenland, Saint-Barthélemy and the other overseas countries and territories are not outermost regions. The derogation does not apply to them. Ceuta and Melilla are not outermost regions either.
Not the same as FuelEU Maritime
FuelEU Maritime (Regulation (EU) 2023/1805) has its own rules for the same voyages, and they differ on almost every point. The two regimes have to be modelled separately. This is where most of the confusion comes from.
Mainland ↔ outermost region, same Member State (Valencia ↔ Las Palmas): ETS 0% until 31-12-2030, automatic · FuelEU 50%, permanent (Art. 2(1)(c))
Mainland ↔ outermost region, other Member State (Rotterdam ↔ Las Palmas): ETS 100% · FuelEU 50%, permanent
Between ports in the same outermost region (Las Palmas ↔ Tenerife): ETS 0% until 31-12-2030, automatic · FuelEU 50%, or 0% on routes the Member State has notified, until 31-12-2029
Outermost regions of different Member States (Las Palmas ↔ Funchal): ETS 100% · FuelEU 50%
Outermost region ↔ third country (Las Palmas ↔ Agadir): ETS 50% · FuelEU 50%
Port stay in the outermost region, next to an exempt voyage: ETS 0% until 31-12-2030 · FuelEU 100%, or 0% in ports the Member State has notified, until 31-12-2029
Port stay in the mainland port, next to an exempt voyage: ETS 0% until 31-12-2030 (verifier's interpretation, see above) · FuelEU 100%
Spain, Portugal and France have each notified FuelEU exemptions for specific outermost-region routes and ports, published in the Official Journal in 2025 and 2026. Check whether your routes and ports are on those lists; the FuelEU exemption only applies if they are. The ETS derogation needs no such list.
What it looks like in practice
We ran the comparison ourselves on a container feeder with a fixed rotation between a mainland Spanish port and the Canary Islands, reporting year 2025. We set our own ETS calculation next to the verified emissions report.
The source data and the voyage logic matched line for line: all 202 voyages and port stays, with a difference of less than 0.2 t CO₂ on 10,659 t. The allowance totals did not match: 3,975 against 1,357. The entire gap was one rule. The verifier had applied the outermost-region derogation to the 96 voyages and port stays in the Canary Islands rotation, including the port stays in the mainland port. That took the allowances to surrender down by 2,617, or 66%.
At an allowance price of €85, roughly the mid-October 2026 level, 2,617 allowances is about €220,000 on one feeder in one year. The derogation is now built into our calculation and we match the verifier to the line.
Two caveats. The figure above is for this ship and this rotation; the only way to know what the derogation is worth to you is to apply it to your own voyage data. And 2025 was a 70% year: from 2026, 100% of in-scope emissions have to be covered, and methane and nitrous oxide count as well, so a missed derogation costs more, not less.
Why this matters
The derogation is easy to miss. Many ETS tools and spreadsheets apply the 100%/50% geography and the yearly phase-in correctly, and stop there. Anyone who runs a fixed rotation to an outermost region from the same Member State should check:
Spanish feeders and ro-ro lines between the mainland and the Canary Islands
Portuguese lines to Madeira and the Azores
French lines and feeders to the Antilles, French Guiana, Réunion and Mayotte
Cruise itineraries that sail between Canary Islands ports, or between the islands and mainland Spain
When the derogation is missed, two things go wrong. The shipping company surrenders more allowances than it owes. And on time-chartered ships the ETS cost is passed on to the charterer, usually through the BIMCO ETS allowances clause, so the charterer is invoiced for allowances that were never due. Charterers on these routes have the same reason to check their statements as owners.
If allowances were surrendered that were not due, they do not come back automatically. A correction goes through the administering authority and is assessed case by case. Check 2024 and 2025 before you assume anything either way.
What to check now
List every 2024, 2025 and 2026 voyage between a port in an outermost region and a port in the same Member State, including inter-island voyages.
Check one of those voyages in your ETS statement or tool. Does it show zero allowances? If not, the derogation is not being applied.
Check the port stays before and after those voyages, and agree their treatment with your verifier.
Compare the allowances surrendered for 2024 and 2025 with what was due. If there is a difference, raise it with your verifier and administering authority.
On time-chartered ships, check the ETS statements exchanged under the charter party, as owner or as charterer.
Make sure your 2026 calculation applies the derogation at 100% scope, with CH₄ and N₂O included.
Keep the ETS and FuelEU calculations separate. Check whether your routes and ports are on the FuelEU exemption lists your Member State has notified.
How Green Maritime helps
We calculate EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime separately, per voyage and per port stay, from the data already in the system, with the outermost-region derogation and the other derogations applied as the verifier applies them. For ships on time charter we issue one statement per charter period.
If your ships call at the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores or one of the French outermost regions, send us your voyage list for 2025 and we will tell you how many allowances sit in your outermost-region voyages. No extrapolation: we calculate it on your own data, the same way the verifier does.
Send us your 2025 voyage list and we'll run a free outermost-region check.
