What it is
PM10 and PM2.5 are suspended particles up to 10 and 2.5 micrometres in diameter. They come from heating, traffic, industry, energy production, dust, and other sources. In June 2026 the issue became practical again because of RERI's 2025 analysis: the organization compared Serbian monitoring-station data with future EU standards and highlighted the gap between measurements, legal limits, and state measures.
Which limits matter
For PM10, Serbia has a daily limit value of 50 micrograms per cubic metre, which may be exceeded only a limited number of days per year. For PM2.5, Serbia's key rule is an annual concentration limit; RERI stresses that national rules do not set a separate daily PM2.5 limit. That means the same measurements can look different: current Serbian rules test one set of thresholds, while the EU 2030 standard applies a stricter benchmark, including a daily PM2.5 reference point.
What 2025 showed
RERI says all 97 Serbian stations with minimally reliable data exceeded the European air-quality standard against which the organization compared the results in 2025. For PM2.5, exceedances averaged 104 days, while the EU's 2030 target is no more than 18 such days. For PM10, RERI lists the highest exceedance-day counts in Novi Pazar - 127, Valjevo and Prokuplje - 120 each, Leskovac - 110, Krusevac - 105, Vranje - 98, and Uzice - 91.
Promises and current status
Partly delivered: Serbia has a monitoring network and a national Air Protection Program for 2022-2030. Missing or delayed: according to RERI, imported-vehicle standards were not aligned with Euro 5 and Euro 6 by the January 2024 and January 2025 deadlines, a key emissions rulebook was moved to late 2026, and staffing for industrial-polluter permits was not increased. The open question is when these measures become verifiable decisions rather than program items.
Why it matters
For residents this is a health issue, not just environmental statistics. The state program cited by RERI estimates the effects of air pollution at nearly 10,000 premature deaths per year and still expects 7,373 such deaths in 2030 even if measures are implemented. For cities with frequent exceedances, this is also about heating, traffic, industrial permits, healthcare costs, and trust in official data.
Next deadline
The nearest checkable deadline is late 2026: according to RERI, that is when the emissions rulebook has been postponed to. The broader deadline is 2030, when the air-protection program should show results and EU standards become stricter. Until then, the main open question for readers is which concrete measures the state actually introduces on vehicles, industrial sources, heating, and polluter permits.