Serbia GENERAL INFORMATION Serbia had a population of around 6.9 million as of 1 Janu­ary 2021. 280 In 2020 the official unemployment rate was 9.1 per cent 281 and 65.9 per cent of the working-age popu­lation was employed. 282 The gross domestic product per capita in purchasing power standards in Serbia in 2020 was only 43 per cent of the EU average, 283 and 31.7 per cent of people were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2019, 284 the latest year for which data is available. Serbia’s political scene is dominated by the Serbian Progres­sive Party, which has been in power since 2012. The last par­liamentary, provincial and municipal elections took place in 2020 and the next parliamentary, presidential and Belgrade city assembly elections will be held in 2022. Deep polarisa­tion is visible between the ruling party and opposition. 285 In 2020 the European Commission remarked in its annual re­port on Serbia that:‘ The newly constituted Serbian parlia­ment is marked by the overwhelming majority of the ruling coalition and the absence of a viable opposition, a situation which is not conducive to political pluralism in the country.’ 286 Even though the Serbian government continues to declare EU membership as a strategic goal, this is often not visible in public statements or actions by government representatives. In principle Serbia strives to balance relations with the EU, USA, China and Russia, but Serbia’s‘steel friendship’ with China has been particularly strong during the last two years. 287 This has been mirrored by weak progress on EU ac­cession for many years now, though 2021 has seen some progress in the energy sector 288 after many years of stagna­tion. ENERGY TRANSITION SNAPSHOT electricity is supplied by Elektroprivreda Srbije(EPS), a giant state-owned company that employed around 28,500 peo­ple in 2020. 289 Despite strong growth in wind power as Serbia’s 2020 re­newable energy target deadline approved, in 2020 it still made up only 2.7 per cent of electricity generated. Serbia did not meet its 2020 renewable energy target of 27 per cent of gross final energy consumption – in 2019 its share was 21.4 per cent. 290 By the end of 2020, Serbia had 398 MW of wind power installed but only 11 MW of so­lar. 291 In 2021 a new Law on Renewable Energy was ap­proved, which moves Serbia to a market-based support scheme and should speed up solar installation in particu­lar. Serbia is currently still building a new lignite power plant, Kostolac B. A second planned plant, Kolubara B, was can­celled earlier this year, though it still has not been removed from the national spatial plan that is under development. In fact, the draft spatial plan contains six new fossil-fuelled power plants. 292 For heating, around a third of households use wood, around a fifth use electricity(traditional heaters, not heat pumps), ten per cent use coal and just under ten per cent use natural gas. 293 Like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia is highly energy-inten­sive – more than three times the EU average in 2019. 294 To address this, Serbia has adopted a new Law on Energy Effi­ciency and Rational Use of Energy in 2021 and has improved its energy efficiency financing framework, adopted the fourth Energy Efficiency Action Plan and new labelling reg­ulations. Serbia satisfies most of its electricity demand from domes­tic generation, relying around 70 per cent on lignite, while the remaining 30 per cent is mostly generated by hydro­power plants, making Serbia second only to Kosovo in terms of coal dependence in the Western Balkans. Most 280 Eurostat, Population on 1 January(ILC_PEPS01), accessed 8 December 2021. 281 Eurostat, Total unemployment rate(UNE_RT_A), accessed 8 December 2021. 282 Eurostat, Employment rate by sex, age group 20-64(LFSI_EMP_A), accessed 8 December 2021. 283 Eurostat, GDP per capita in PPS(PRC_PPP_IND), accessed 8 December 2021. 284 Eurostat, People at risk of poverty or social exclusion(ILC_PEPS01), accessed 8 December 2021. 285 European Commission, Commission staff working document, Serbia 2021 Report, 19 October 2021. 286 European Commission, Commission staff working document, Serbia 2020 Report, 6 October 2020. 287 Stefan Vladisavljev,“Steel Friendship”— Forging of the Perception of China by the Serbian Political Elite, Prague Security Studies Institute, January 2021. 288 European Commission, Commission staff working document, Serbia 2021 Report. The Law on Planning and Construction was also amended in 2020, 295 prescribing the obligation to issue certificates on the energy performance of buildings and establishing the le­gal basis for a long-term strategy for mobilising investment in the renovation of the national stock of residential and commercial buildings, both public and private. 296 289 Elektroprivreda Srbije, Electric Power Industry of Serbia 2020 ­Environmental Report, April 2021. 290 Energy Community Secretariat, Implementation Report 2021. 291 Energy Community Secretariat, Implementation Report 2021. 292 Ioana Ciut ă ,‘Serbia: key national plan risks cementing coal depend­ence’, CEE Bankwatch Network, 29 June 2021. 293 Klaus Englemann et al., Improving the performance of District Heat­ing Systems in Central and Eastern Europe, Keep Warm Project, 29 December 2020. 294 Eurostat, Energy intensity[nrg_ind_ei], accessed 8 December 2021. 295 Zakon o planiranju i izgradnji, Official Gazette of the Repub­lic of Serbia, No. 72/2009, 81/2009, 64/2010, 24/2011, 121/2012, 42/2013, 50/2013, 98/2013, 132/2014, 145/2014, 83/2018, 31/2019, 37/2019, 9/2020 and 52/2021. 296 Republic of Serbia, Ministry of Mining and Energy, Fourth Annual Report under the Energy Efficiency Directive Republic of Serbia, 2020. 51