The CBAM verifier pipeline now has two hard dates. DG TAXUD published the follow-up package for its July 16, 2026 "Become a CBAM verifier" webinar on July 31, 2026, and the operational instruction inside it is new: starting September 1, 2026, prospective verifiers must create an EU Login account and register in the CBAM Registry to apply for registration with their National Competent Authority. Registry access for accredited verifiers follows no earlier than September 30, 2026.
The dates land in a market that still has zero accredited CBAM verifiers anywhere in the EU as of early August 2026. The Commission's verification page continues to state that "the first CBAM verifiers are expected to receive CBAM accreditation around September 2026," which puts accreditation, registry registration, and registry access all inside the same month. Candidate verification bodies, EU importers planning to declare actual emissions, and non-EU producers preparing for site visits all inherit the compressed calendar.
What the July 31 follow-up package contains
The July 31 follow-up package contains three items: the full webinar recording hosted on the Customs & Tax EU Learning Portal, the presentation slides, and a one-page key-takeaways summary. All three cover the July 16 session, which ran through the accreditation framework, the verification rules, and the emissions methodology that verifiers apply when checking declared data.
The technical scope of the session matters for anyone deciding whether to seek accreditation. The methodology block covered functional units, multifunctional production processes, embedded emissions calculations for precursors, and system boundaries for iron, steel, and aluminium products. That is the day-to-day substance of the job: the figure a verifier signs off on is the installation's specific embedded emissions per tonne of goods, and our CBAM embedded emissions guide explains how that figure is built from direct and indirect emissions.
The package also carries the Commission's clearest competitive signal yet. In the words of Vicente Hurtado Roa, Head of Unit at DG TAXUD, "those who will access accreditation first will be better placed to provide services to clients." A regulator does not usually tell applicants to hurry. The statement confirms what the numbers already imply: verification capacity for the 2026 reporting period will be scarce, and early accreditation is a commercial advantage.
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The new dates: registration from September 1, registry access from September 30
Starting September 1, 2026, prospective verifiers must create an EU Login account and join the CBAM Registry to apply for registration with a National Competent Authority (NCA), and registry access for accredited verifiers comes no earlier than September 30, 2026. The follow-up spells out the sequence for the first time: EU Login account first, then a CBAM Registry account, then the registration application to the NCA through the registry.
The sequence exposes a two-track structure that is easy to miss. Accreditation and registration are separate steps handled by separate authorities, listed below.
- Accreditation is granted by a National Accreditation Body (NAB) under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2551; only verifiers accredited by EU National Accreditation Bodies can verify embedded emissions
- Registration runs through the CBAM Registry to the National Competent Authority, and opens September 1, 2026
- Working registry access for accredited verifiers, the point at which a verifier can actually operate in the system, follows no earlier than September 30, 2026
Inside the registry, verifiers and producers collaborate directly: the system lets both sides share verification reports securely. How accounts, logins, and roles work across the system is covered in our CBAM Registry guide.
The verifier timeline after the July 31 update
The verifier pipeline now runs on seven dated milestones, three already delivered and four still pending, listed in the table below.
| Milestone | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| "Verification of CBAM emissions" page published | June 30, 2026 | Live |
| "Become a CBAM verifier" webinar | July 16, 2026 | Held |
| Webinar follow-up: recording, slides, key takeaways | July 31, 2026 | Published |
| Verifier registration in the CBAM Registry opens | September 1, 2026 | Pending |
| First accreditations expected (Commission expectation) | Around September 2026 | Pending |
| Registry access for accredited verifiers | No earlier than September 30, 2026 | Pending |
| First annual CBAM declaration (2026 imports) due | September 30, 2027 | Pending |
The verification page has also refreshed its accreditation snapshot: the "State-of-play CBAM accreditation" document now carries a July 24, 2026 date, replacing the July 10 version that recorded 24 NABs agreeing to offer CBAM accreditation and 11 already accepting applications. Our accredited CBAM verifiers tracker follows that state of play country by country and will list the first accredited firms when NABs grant them.
Zero accredited verifiers, thirteen months of work
No CBAM verifier holds accreditation anywhere in the EU as of early August 2026, which leaves roughly 13 months between the first expected accreditations and the September 30, 2027 declaration deadline. Every verification of 2026 emissions data, including first-time site visits at non-EU installations, has to fit inside that window.
The squeeze lands differently by role. EU importers who want to declare actual values face a sourcing decision now, not next year: finding a CBAM verifier early matters because fees run €5,000 to €50,000 per installation and availability tightens as the deadline approaches. Non-EU producers face a preparation task, because CBAM verification for non-EU producers requires a physical site visit for the 2026 reporting period, with monitoring data and records ready for sampling. Candidate verification bodies, including existing EU ETS verifiers, enter the pipeline as applicants and should have their NAB application and their September registry registration ready to run in parallel.
Why verified data is the biggest cost lever
Verified actual emissions data is the biggest cost lever available for the 2026 declarations due September 30, 2027, because only verified data lets an importer replace marked-up default values with the installation's real figures. Default values carry a 10 percent mark-up in 2026, rising to 20 percent in 2027 and 30 percent from 2028, so an importer sourcing from a cleaner-than-default installation pays for emissions that were never emitted. The defaults themselves moved this month too: the Commission corrected 2026 default values through Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1740, applying the corrections retroactively from January 1, 2026.
The price side of the equation is moving in the same direction. With the Q3 certificate price tracking well above Q2, every tonne of over-declared default emissions costs more, which raises the payback on a €5,000 to €50,000 verification fee. What verifiers check, how the verification report feeds the declaration, and how to select a verification body are covered end to end in the CBAM verification guide.
What happens next
September 2026 concentrates three pipeline events: registration opens in the CBAM Registry on September 1, the Commission expects the first accreditations around September, and registry access for accredited verifiers follows no earlier than September 30. The comprehensive accreditation and verification guidance document the Commission announced for summer 2026 remains the outstanding piece of the rollout that began with the verification page and the July 16 webinar.
When the first NAB grants the first accreditation, the market question shifts from "when will verifiers exist" to "which verifier can take my installation before the deadline." Importers can model what verified data saves them with the CBAM cost calculator, and the full compliance chain from authorization to surrender is mapped in the EU CBAM guide.