Governance and National Energy and Climate Plans

The Governance Regulation in the Energy Community requires Contracting Parties to develop integrated National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs). The NECPs include national objectives and targets and respective policies and measures for all five dimensions of the Energy Union, which are closely related and mutually reinforcing, namely:

  • decarbonisation (including renewable energy);
  • energy efficiency;
  • energy security;
  • internal energy market; and
  • research, innovation and competitiveness.


The Energy Community Secretariat facilitates the process in various roles including:

  • providing informal comments on preliminary NECP drafts or draft chapters;
  • facilitating the cooperation of modelling experts in Contracting Parties in order to create a harmonized and comparable analytical and modelling practice, underpinning the NECP development
  • assessing draft NECPs and possibly issuing country-specific recommendations to Contracting Parties no later than six months before the deadline for submitting final NECPs;
  • monitoring and assessing the ambition and contribution of the targets, policies and measures in the draft NECPs or draft updates of NECPs to the overall Energy Community 2030 targets;
  • on the basis of the integrated progress reports, assessing the progress made at Contracting Parties’ level and by each Contracting Party individually towards meeting the Energy Union targets by 31 October 2025 and every two years after. In addition, the Secretariat issues recommendations to Contracting Parties in case of inconsistencies with overarching Energy Union objectives or insufficient progress made towards meeting national objectives, targets and contributions.

State of NECP preparations

Preliminary drafts or draft chapters informally shared
By July 2021, the Secretariat had provided informal comments to preliminary drafts from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.
Draft NECPs submitted and recommendations issued
In Fall 2020, the Secretariat provided recommendations to North Macedonia, and in December 2021 to Albania on their draft NECPs. Additional drafts are expected from other Contracting Parties.
NECPs adopted
In December 2021, Albania adopted their NECP for the period 2021-2030. North Macedonia adopted their first NECP in May 2022.
Preparatory status in detail

status: 07/2022