EN
The article presents an attempt to assess the EU greenhouse gases emission trading scheme in the third trading period covering the years 2013−2020. The system constitutes the absolutely fundamental instrument of the community climate policy. Starting from 1st January 2013 it has been functioning according to the revised legal formula. The objective of the study is to provide a partial answer to the question whether the system, in its new formula, can be regarded as the optimal instrument of the current climate policy. Answering this question two selected, but, crucial optimization criteria were used, i.e. the criterion of environmental effectiveness and the criterion of distribution effects minimization.