Serbia to meet regulatory requirements for integration into single EU electrical energy market by end-year, minister announces

Serbia is continuing to harmonize with the regulations of the European Union, and by the end of the year, through amendments to the Law on Energy, regulatory conditions will be met for the integration into the single EU electrical energy market, said the minister of mining and energy of Serbia, Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic, who attended the informal ministerial meeting of the Energy Community in Banjaluka, with the presence of representatives of the European Commission.

As the government announced, the minister said that it was very important for Serbia to join the single EU electrical energy market, and that the country worked on it diligently, taking care to preserve the national interests.

She emphasized that a national analysis and estimate of the impact of the implementation of the CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) was being prepared and that the Ministry of Mining and Energy worked on defining the most acceptable option to tax carbon.

According to her, carbon taxation on a local level can be one of the acceptable options for now, because, with a fixed price, it would make the economy predictable in the adjustment period.

– The introduction of a regional system for carbon emission trading at the same price and modeled after the system that exists in the EU (EU ETS) by 2030 is not an option for Serbia, due to the too-high financial consequences and the complex implementation above all – she said.

Serbia, as she added, plans to be part of the EU ETS system, on its road to joining the EU, for which the country needs, in addition to the technical assistance of the Energy Community, a certain financial help of the EU too, as well as a sustainable time period for the implementation.

The minister pointed out that Serbia was at the beginning of a just energy transition, a long and expensive process, and that it was necessary to secure access to EU funds in order for it to be carried out in a sustainable way.

When it comes to energy security, she pointed out that the preparations for the heating season were going as planned, that Serbia was investing in the modernization of the production capacities, transfer and distribution networks and that, since the previous year, the gas supply had been diversified.

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

Energy Community

Ministry of Mining and Energy

Dubravka Đedović Handanović

Law on Energy

EU ETC

CBAM