EU to help Serbia implement charging for heating per consumption – Donation of EUR 1.2 million for increasing energy efficiency

This Thursday, November 30, 2017, Minister of Mining and Energy of Serbia Aleksandar Antic talked to Deputy Director-General of the Department for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Katarina Mathernova about the establishment of a sustainable system for increasing energy efficiency, which would implement charging for heating per consumption, instead of per square meter, thereby saving 9% of energy by 2018.

Serbia is a part of the pilot-project of the EU for increasing energy efficiency, in which Ukraine, Tunisia and Georgia also participate.

Mathernova pointed out that public and residential buildings consumed great amounts of energy, as much as 34% of the total amount, and that “an adequate energy efficiency policy” was thereby needed in order to solve the problem. She added that it was “much more important to remove the barriers” preventing rational energy usage and to implement charging per consumption.

Minister Antic told the press at the Government of Serbia that he had been assured that the European Commission is prepared to provide help in establishing a system for increasing energy efficiency.

– We need to increase technical capacities, create projects and define a set of measures which would motivate consumers of heating energy to use it rationally – Antic said.

He added that “energy managers” in local self-governments will be in charge of detecting the critical points in irrational spending of heating energy and preparing projects enabling a more rational consumption.

The aim of the ministry, as he said, was to create a sustainable system and a fund for energy efficiency, which would finance projects in a way that would eliminate the need for constantly adding money to it, as the same amount would be circling around it.

– Serbia is ready for the pilot-project and the twinning program, and we would prefer for the country to carry out the energy efficiency program using the model of Slovakia, which used to be where Serbia is now prior to the implementation of the system – Antic said.

As he said, a donation of EUR 1.2 million is expected for the establishment of the capacities for increasing energy efficiency, and then another EUR 20-30 million for the energy efficiency fund.

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

EUROPEAN COMMISSION Bruxelles

European Commission

Department for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations

Aleksandar Antic

Katarina Mathernova

energy efficiency

charging for heating per consumption

energy managers

fund for energy efficiency