The series was created in 2006 through the merger of two existing national championships: the Formula Renault 2.0 Germany, which had been running since 1991, and the Formula Renault 2.0 Netherlands, established in 2003. By combining the two grids, the newly formed Northern European Cup offered a more competitive field and a broader geographic footprint than either predecessor series could sustain independently.
The championship was organised by its promoter MdH Consultants AG. In 2007, the series introduced a Winter Cup — the first off-season championship in its history — held at Hockenheim and Oschersleben in December. The winner of the Winter Cup received a free entry for the following season's main NEC championship, providing an additional incentive for drivers to remain in the series over the winter months.
A secondary class, the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup FR2000, was introduced in 2010 to accommodate drivers on tighter budgets or at earlier stages of their careers, using slightly older machinery.
Although originally conceived as a Northern European series focused on Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, the NEC expanded over the years to include circuits across a much wider area of Europe. This flexibility allowed the championship to remain relevant as a regional feeder series even as the European motorsport landscape evolved around it.
The cars used a Tatuus chassis combined with 2.0-litre Renault Clio engines, identical in specification to those used across other contemporary Formula Renault 2.0 championships. Michelin supplied tyres for the series. The standardised technical package kept costs manageable and ensured that competition was determined by driver skill rather than mechanical advantage.
Points were distributed on a generous scale to encourage competitive racing throughout the field: 30 points for the winner, 24 for second, 20 for third, then diminishing awards from 17 points for fourth down to 1 point for 20th place. Only classified finishers received points.
Despite a strong initial period, the series was eventually wound down and folded prior to the 2019 season. Declining interest from drivers — reflecting broader pressures facing regional Formula Renault championships across Europe as the landscape shifted toward FIA-regulated Formula 4 categories — made the continuation of the championship unviable. The series had previously considered rebranding itself as FormulaNEC, but that transition never took place before the closure was announced.
The Formula Renault 2.0 NEC served for over a decade as a competitive regional stepping stone in Northern Europe's junior single-seater ladder. Its foundation on the merged German and Dutch championships gave it credibility with teams and drivers from those markets, and its multi-country calendar provided useful exposure for drivers seeking to build a professional racing profile before progressing toward European-level Formula Renault or Formula 3 competition.