Around 150 major industrial facilities in Serbia are still operating without integrated environmental permits, despite a legal requirement introduced more than two decades ago and successive deadlines for compliance. The permitting obligation was established in 2004, with existing operators initially required to obtain permits by 2015. The deadline was later extended to the end of 2020 and subsequently to December 2024.
Only 67 integrated permits have been issued during the past two decades, while approximately 220 operators are required to hold one, according to data cited by Vreme. A new law adopted in July 2026 gives authorities six months to identify again all facilities covered by the permitting regime.
Integrated permits cover multiple environmental requirements
An integrated permit brings together requirements for air and water pollution, soil contamination, waste management, noise, energy and resource consumption, and accident prevention. The procedure examines a facility’s entire production process, including its raw materials and energy inputs, emissions and waste. Operators are required to apply the best available techniques for their respective industries, comply with prescribed emission limits, monitor environmental impacts and regularly report results to authorities. The system applies to major facilities in sectors including energy, metallurgy, chemicals, mineral processing, wood production, waste management and agriculture.
Older facilities face different enforcement standards
Hristina Vojvodić, a legal adviser at the Platform for Social Development and Innovation, attributes the prolonged delays to weak penalties, insufficient regulatory pressure and missing basic documentation, including water and occupancy permits. She also points to differences in the treatment of new and existing facilities. Inspectors can prevent a newly built plant from beginning operations without an integrated permit, while older facilities are generally permitted to continue operating once they have submitted an application, even when the documentation remains incomplete or the application is eventually rejected.
Some cases have remained unresolved for years. The Nikola Tesla thermal power plant, for example, was instructed to supplement its documentation after meetings in 2014, but its permitting procedure has still not reached a final outcome. Vojvodić argues that authorities should establish explicit deadlines for operators to provide missing documents and reject applications when those requirements are not met. Keeping proceedings open indefinitely, she says, transfers responsibility away from both regulators and companies responsible for pollution.
Compliance remains a cost for industrial operators
Approximately half of the facilities on the list are small and medium-sized businesses with limited administrative and financial capacity, which has been cited as one reason for the delays. The list also includes some of Serbia’s largest and most profitable companies. Environmental experts maintain that expenditure on cleaner technologies should be treated as a normal business cost rather than an optional expense for companies whose operations generate pollution.
Questions have also been raised about how the new legislation fits Serbia’s existing permitting framework. European Union rules assume that industrial facilities already have essential construction, water and occupancy permits. Applying those requirements without resolving Serbia’s outstanding permitting issues could leave some environmental controls outside the planning and construction stages.
New law introduces electronic applications and tighter inspections
The July 2026 law provides for electronic permit applications, more detailed requirements concerning the use of best available technologies and stricter inspection provisions. Environment Minister Sara Pavkov has said that most facilities covered by the system are expected to obtain integrated permits after 2030.
Environmental experts, however, say that procedural acceleration alone will not resolve the outstanding cases. They point to the need for consistent inspections, equal treatment of new and existing facilities, reliable environmental monitoring and an end to prolonged tolerance of non-compliance.
