Government concern is greater for some types of energy than for others. Smart district heating can produce social benefits that initially go beyond that energy service’s share of energy consumption and may merit increased concern.
District heating in Serbia is not smart, and it participates with 4% in the final energy consumption and with about 11% in the final energy consumption in households. The users of this service are, as a rule, better-off fellow citizens living in above-average expensive real estate.
Almost three quarters of all district heating capacities are located in Belgrade and Novi Sad. The companies that provide the service do not meet all of their legal obligations. In 2025, Serbian taxpayers undertook to finance district heating in Novi Sad with more than 100 million euros.
The political will of local self-governments, the Republic of Serbia, the European Union and other actors agreed to design an intervention that would use 65 million euros[1] to co-finance the energy rehabilitation of residential buildings connected to district heating systems in 14 local governments in the Republic of Serbia[2].
73% of all residential communities that expressed interest in participating in the project are located in Belgrade and Novi Sad. This share corresponds to the share of district heating service users in these cities in the total number of all users of this service in the Republic of Serbia.The value of real estate in the 271 residential communities in Belgrade that applied to be beneficiaries of this generous assistance amounts to almost 1.6 billion euros.
In the adopted Law on the Budget of the Republic of Serbia for the year 2025 in Article 3 B[3] the legislator allowed project borrowing by the Republic of Serbia for the project Energy rehabilitation of residential buildings connected to the district heating system with the EBRD in the amount of 50 million euros. However, this debt did not occur in 2025. In the adopted Law on the Budget of the Republic of Serbia for 2026[4] in Article 3 B, the legislator did not specify this project charge.
We present to you an updated presentation of the idea of public financing of the energy rehabilitation of residential buildings connected to the district heating system in the hope that we will understand how the political will of local governments, the Republic of Serbia, the European Union and other actors was acquired around this designed intervention. Or how that political will disappeared, if it disappeared at all.
This is especially important for future creators of good energy public policies in the new Serbian society. Because “he who does not remember relives it”[5].
Read the study Who owns energy efficiency: Remote assistance for district heating – updated edition, 2025
[1] Sum of anticipated grant funds and debt funds
[2] https://www.mre.gov.rs/tekst/2437/projekat-energetska-sanacija-stambenih-vise-porodicnih-zgrada-prikljucenih-na-sistem-daljinskog-grejanja-javni-esco-projekat-.php
[3] https://www.paragraf.rs/propisi/zakon-o-budzetu-republike-srbije.html
[4] https://www.mfin.gov.rs//upload/media/i86uew_6932a34de6dde.docx
[5] Thanks to Branimir Štulić for the lyrics from the song “Sloboda”.