REK Bitola released 7,675 tonnes of dust in 2025 - more than an entire region of four countries combined is allowed to emit. The figure has doubled compared to 2024, and it comes from the „Comply or Close“ report by the environmental network Bankwatch.

The picture across the region is alarming. Coal plants in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia emitted sulfur dioxide at 6.6 times the allowed level in 2025, and dust 2.9 times over the threshold - the highest since 2018. Five coal blocks exceeded their sulfur dioxide limits by more than ten times, three of them at REK Bitola.

The part about penalties is even more scandalous: according to the report, between 2018 and 2025 not a single fine was issued for these breaches. The compliance deadline is 2027, and the average age of the coal blocks is 49 years - plants that should have been retired long ago.

Behind the numbers is the air breathed by people in Bitola, Pelagonia and beyond. When a single plant pollutes more than four countries combined and there's no penalty, the message to citizens is clear - your lungs are cheaper than modernization. And while electricity exports to the EU fall because of new carbon levies, the question is whether the economy will force us to clean up what health failed to.