Energy Community adopted EU’s Recommendation on integrated National Energy and Climate Plans

The Contracting Parties of the Energy Community have to start preparation of integrated National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) in 2018 and should finalize them as soon as possible, the European Commission proposed in Recommendation on preparing for the development of integrated NECPs.

The Contracting Parties (CPs) formally adopted the Recommendation which aims at encouraging the CPs to start preparing integrated NECPs. The adoption of the Recommendation also imposes a new name for the Energy Community’s Climate Action Group which will be now called the Energy and Climate Committee.

The Recommendation calls the CPs to prepare the analytical, institutional and regulatory preconditions for the adoption of integrated NECPs for the 2021- 2030 period.

“Integrated NECPs are meant to streamline multiple monitoring and reporting obligations on climate and energy, reduce the administrative burden and enhance transparency for all energy actors, while promoting investor stability. Citizens and business are encouraged to participate in the preparation of the plans to ensure that their views are heard,” the Energy Community said in a statement.

National plans must address the five dimensions of the Energy Union set out in the European Commission’s Communication of 25 February 2015. The Contracting Parties will define objectives for each dimension of the Energy Union. Five main pillars of the Energy Union are security, solidarity and trust; a fully integrated internal energy market; energy efficiency; decarbonizing the economy, and research, innovation, and competitiveness.

For each objective, the plans should include a description of the policies and measures planned for meeting these objectives.

Regional Cooperation

Contracting Parties also must ensure comprehensive public participation in the preparation of national plans.

“National plans should complement and where possible reinforce each other, using national strengths to address regional challenges in the most secure and cost-effective way. Coordination of national policies must also prevent adverse incentives, allow for exploiting synergies and mitigate inconsistencies between national policies of Contracting Parties. National Plans will, therefore, contain an assessment of how the envisaged objectives and policies in the plans will impact on other Contracting Parties and how cooperation across policy areas and sub-sectors should be strengthened,” the Recommendation reads.

The Energy Community Secretariat will support the Contracting Parties in this process.