23It should be recalled here that Directive 2003/87 aims to reduce, by 2020, the overall greenhouse gas emissions of the European Union by at least 20% in comparison with 1990 levels, in an economically efficient manner. In order to attain that objective, the EU legislature devised two mechanisms. The first, put in place by Article 9 of Directive 2003/87, consists in the reduction in the number of allowances available by the application of a linear factor of 1.74% compared to the average annual total quantity of allowances issued by Member States in accordance with the Commission’s decisions on their national allocation plans for the period from 2008 to 2012. The second mechanism is the auctioning of allowances, which also aims to facilitate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in an economically efficient manner (judgment of 28 April 2016, Borealis Polyolefine and Others, C‑191/14, C‑192/14, C‑295/14, C‑389/14 and C‑391/14 to C‑393/14, EU:C:2016:311, paragraph 81).
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