North Macedonia plans to subsidize the purchase of 200 electric vehicles for taxi drivers to improve urban transportation and reduce air pollution. The country’s first move toward electrifying public transportation was announced last year by Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, who said 100-120 electric buses would be purchased. Now, in Skopje, the Ministry of Environment and […]
Greenpeace Bulgaria and Za Zemiata (For the Earth) said they would file a complaint today with the European Commission over repeated failures by Bulgarian authorities to enforce the European Union’s environmental law at four coal plants. They expressed the view that institutions are prioritizing financial interests over public health and the environment. Environmental organizations Greenpeace […]
District heating plant Energetika has begun removing coal ash from an uncovered disposal site that has been polluting air and soil for years in the heart of Kragujevac, Serbia’s fourth-largest city. The effort is part of a project financed by an EUR 18 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), to […]
The European Union approved EUR 240 million in non-repayable assistance to Serbia from pre-accession funds for projects worth an overall EUR 325.2 million. The investments, intended for the period through 2032, are for waste and wastewater management, energy efficiency improvement and the transition to renewable energy sources. Serbia and the European Union signed a financing […]
North Macedonia should bridge the gap between commitments and reality on human rights of Romas and environmental protection, the Council of Europe said. In his new memorandum, the organization’s Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty raised concerns about environmental risks disproportionately affecting Romas, including air and waste pollution, lack of sanitation and exclusion from public […]
Author: Ivan Gazdić, Attorney at Law and Partner at Petrikić & Partneri AOD in cooperation with CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz For many years, Belgrade has struggled with long-standing urban, infrastructural and environmental challenges that have impeded its progress towards sustainable development in accordance with the standards of contemporary European cities. The main obstacles to Belgrade’s urban advancement include poorly […]
Energy modernization projects in nine member states of the European Union will receive a total of EUR 3.66 billion from the Modernisation Fund, in the largest disbursement to date from the facility financed by carbon pricing revenues, according to a press release from the European Commission. The selected projects focus on renewable energy, grid upgrades, […]
In 2024, Western Balkan governments’ chronic law enforcement failures allowed sulphur dioxide (SO2) pollution from the region’s antiquated coal power plants to exceed legal limits by six times, according to the Comply or Close report. The overall particulate matter (PM or dust) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) pollution from coal plants continued to exceed legal limits. […]
The Government of Serbia has secured a EUR 50 million loan to fund a series of air quality projects across several cities. The funds will primarily go towards replacing coal- and fuel oil-fired boiler rooms in six cities. For years, air pollution has been one of the biggest environmental issues in Serbia. Minister of Environmental […]
Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has developed a register of air-polluting emissions and an information system to track pollutants. The register aims to reduce air pollution in Sarajevo, which very often tops the list of the world’s most polluted cities. The project to develop the emissions register and the air-pollutant information system for […]