Article 4(1) of Directive 2009/28/EC requires the Commission to adopt a template for the National Renewable Energy Action Plans by 30 June 2009.
The objectives of the template are to guide and help Member States in the elaboration of their National Renewable Energy Action Plan. The template is also aimed to ensure completeness of these Action Plans. Moreover a common format makes it possible to compare plans at EU level. The individual National Renewable Energy Action Plans can be compared to each other; can be easily aggregated to form the overall EU renewable energy strategy and will be a starting point for the biannual national reports on the progress made. The use of the template will also help the Commission in its task to follow-up the implementation of the Directive.

Adopted by Commission Decision C(2009)5174-1 of 30 June 2009, the template is covering all issues in Directive 2009/28/EC, as required in its Annex VI. It is a 40-page document with explanatory notes on how to prepare the National Renewable Energy Action Plan and with concrete questions on the implementation of the different provisions of the Directive.
The use of the template is obligatory, which means that each national action plan has to follow the structure of the template and give answers to each of the questions it contains.
 
    
The National Renewable Energy Action Plans following these formal requirements have to explain how the Member State will reach its national overall target, as defined in Annex I A of the Directive, for the share of energy from renewable sources in 2020. For this purpose, Member States have to set national sectoral renewable energy targets in electricity, heating-cooling and in transport, in this last sector at a minimum level of 10% of energy used in transport. For this purpose, the national final energy consumption also has to be estimated up to 2020, for each year. The description of current and planned measures has to be detailed, explaining each question asked in the template: for example include support schemes, where Member States might choose between a wide range of options; or administrative procedures, planning, electricity connection or biomass policy where national administrative, legal and geographical circumstances might limit possible options.

The National Renewable Energy Action Plans should also include information on the impacts of the strategy, on the expected contribution of each technology and resource and on the preparation and follow up of the NREAP.

After the notification of the National Renewable Energy Action Plans on 30 June 2010, the European Commission will evaluate each individual national action plan. It will make sure that the plan is consistent with the overall national renewable energy target by 2020 and with all the provisions of the Directive, both in content and format. The consistency and credibility of each plan will be assessed and in case of concerns, the Commission might issue recommendations or use other instruments of enforcing Community legislation.

For clarifications needed on the template for the National Renewable Energy Action Plans, the Commission has created a functional mailbox: EC-NREAP(at)ec.europa.eu