SRCE: After the government falls, dubious energy projects will be reviewed

The “Serbia Centre” (SRCE) party has promised that after the government falls it will seek a review of major energy projects that either contradict Serbia’s official EU-accession policy or show signs of corruption.

The party’s energy and mining committee specifies that the 1,000-megawatt solar plant and 200-megawatt battery project will be reviewed — contracted as “the most expensive sunshine in history”, at a price of nearly two billion euros, four to five times higher than real market value.

The statement says a halt will also be sought for the TENT A Obrenovac–TENT Novi Beograd central heating project, which relied on replacing lignite with gas. According to SRCE, this was the first serious intervention in decarbonizing Serbia’s energy sector made before 2012, while the government is now trying to bring lignite back into the picture — via TENT A — to heat Belgrade.

The oil pipeline project to Hungary should also be reviewed, “because if we are genuinely committed to the path toward the EU, it is completely meaningless for Serbia, since from that northern direction the country would mostly receive Russian oil from the Druzhba pipeline,” as Danas reports.