Photo: Tanjug/Sava RadovanovićSerbia is the only country in the region that has not banned the import of cars with Euro 3 and Euro 4 engines. Although the ban on the import of these engines has been announced for a long time, the decision remained only a dead letter, and the average age of cars in Serbia is 17 years.
The average age of a car in Serbia is 17 years, and we are the only country in the region where imports are allowed cars with a Euro 3 and 4 engine, which is not only an environmental problem, but also a safety problem, said the General Secretary of the Serbian Association of Vehicle and Parts Importers, Boris Ćorović.
"Statistics show that 84 percent of the annual passenger car market is used cars, and only 16 percent is new." "We expect that this year will end with about 26.000 new passenger cars sold, and that, roughly like last year, about 130.000 used cars will be imported," Ćorović told Insider television.
He pointed out that Serbia is the only country in the Western Balkans where allowed import Euro 3 and 4 engines, which are cars manufactured from 2000 onwards.
"This means that we can import a 24-year-old car into Serbia, which is prohibited in Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Albania." It is important to point out that such vehicles are not only an ecological risk, but also a safety risk, because they have traveled a large number of kilometers and the question is what is the condition of its components, which affect the safety of the vehicle," said Ćorović.
He reminded that two years ago, the Government of Serbia adopted the Program for Air Protection, with an Action Plan, and that it was defined that from January 1 this year the import of vehicles with Euro 3 and 4 engines will be prohibited, and from January 1, 2025 .even with euro 5.
"We hope that it will be realized in the future, that we will limit it and that we will reach at least the Euro 5 standard," said Ćorović.
A dead letter on paper
However, for now everything remains a dead letter on paper.
"It is necessary to rejuvenate the fleet for safety, health and environmental reasons. We must not allow other countries to get rid of prohibited vehicles, their waste, by exporting them to our country", Aleksandra Đurđević from the Serbian Association of Importers of Vehicles and Parts told RTS earlier this year.
Docent from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Predrag Mrđa, pointed out that such cars are leaving the European market for a reason. "We, as consumers, have what we have here," says Mrđa.
An additional problem is that a large number of cars with Euro 3 and 4 standards have been stripped of their exhaust gas purification systems, which ranks them among the biggest air polluters.
And the decision on regular control of exhaust gases and catalytic converters is "pending" at least until 2025.
The fleet is almost "coming of age"
I a large international survey "Time" from November last year showed that Serbia is an oasis for European old students.
Experts are convinced that Serbia - as well as other poor countries of the Balkans, Africa or Central Asia - will not be freed from the fate of driving European ruins for a long time.
In the middle of last year, the European Commission (EC) proposed that older, dilapidated cars, popular "used cars" should no longer be sold or exported outside the EU. But for now, everything is left to the proposal
"The West wants to be clean and sustainable, responsible for itself, but not for others - it exports dirty technology to pollute until the end of its life." China does the same - it doesn't even respect the minimum standards here," Marko Vujić, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences who deals with environmental issues, told "Vreme" earlier.
Why doesn't Serbia ban imports?
The relevant minister, Goran Vesić, said earlier that the realistic goal is to reduce the average age of vehicles to 2030 years by 14. It is not his right that Europeans export everything and anything here. "They will not ban exports, because that way they provide additional income to the citizens." It makes no sense to export your problems to others in Europe, but that's how it always goes."
If Europe doesn't want to ban exports, why doesn't Serbia at least ban the import of the oldest cars?
"We are not a rich enough country to be able to change the regulation overnight and have everyone drive Euro 6 cars from tomorrow," said Vesić. "People need time to get used to it, not everyone has the money to change their car right away."
The Serbian media write every year that the import of Euro 3 and Euro 4 standard vehicles will finally be banned. But they wrote the same last year and the year before last. Allegedly, the measure was discussed several times in the Government, but it was abandoned for fear of angering the poorer electorate.
Source: FoNet/RTS
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