The Union Database, and what it asks of your supply chain

It is the European system for recording biofuel consignments and their transfers, introduced under the Renewable Energy Directive so that a volume claimed in one member state cannot also be claimed in another. It records data about consignments that your scheme certification supports; it does not certify anything itself.

No. The scheme certifies the operator and the chain of custody; the database records the resulting consignment data so it can be matched across borders. You need both, and the database generally asks for information you should already hold if your certification is in order.

Ask your certification body what applies to your role, your member state and your product, because that answer is specific and it changes. Then do the part that helps regardless: reconcile quantities, categories and counterparty names across the declaration, bill of lading and invoice for a few recent consignments, and fix whatever does not line up. Data that survives being matched against someone else's is the whole game.

The registration and reporting detail has been phased in and differs by member state and fuel type, so confirm your own position with your certification body rather than reading it off a page. What holds in every version is that each transfer has to reconcile: quantities consistent across documents, feedstock described the same way from collection to refinery gate, the greenhouse gas figure carried with its calculation basis, and the counterparty identity matching between declaration, contract and invoice.

Economic operators in the chain, with the specifics depending on your role and member state. If you are a collector, processor, trader or fuel supplier, assume the question applies to you and get a definite answer from your certification body rather than assuming somebody downstream will handle it.

Data that does not reconcile. A rounding difference between the declaration and the bill of lading, a feedstock described one way at collection and another at delivery, or a greenhouse gas figure passed on without its basis. All of these survive fine in a paper chain and fail the moment two records are matched against each other.

The Union Database changes how sustainability data moves across the EU, and its relationship with national systems has been evolving. Confirm the current position for your specific chain with your certification body. What has not changed is that the national authority still needs proof it can book, and that proof still starts with your certification and your documents.

That is the intent, and cross-border matching does close a gap that document-based proof left open. It is not a complete answer on its own, data entered consistently can still describe something that never happened, which is why audit and physical verification still matter. But double counting across member states gets considerably harder, and that is worth something to everyone trading this material honestly.