Category: Land, water and workers
Period: from Oct 2020
Outcome: No one investigated (as of 31 May 2021)
On 30 December 2025, the Provincial Secretariat for Energy, Construction and Transport authorised the use of mixers and storage for raw materials, sulphur and carbon black at the Linglong tyre factory near Zrenjanin without consent for protection against major chemical accidents, an investigation by Radio Free Europe has shown. Only then, two and a half years after production began, did Linglong report that it stores hazardous chemicals with a risk of a major accident, which is why the City of Zrenjanin had been refusing it use permits. Whether the Ministry of Environmental Protection has given its consent is not known, and the factory is operating.
In December 2025, Linglong was entered in the register of upper-tier Seveso establishments and submitted a safety report to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, even though in its environmental impact studies it had claimed it would store hazardous chemicals only in negligible quantities. The City of Zrenjanin therefore rejected all its applications for use permits, saying it was waiting for the Ministry's consent.
The day after the city's first rejection, the Provincial Secretariat for Energy, Construction and Transport authorised the use of the factory's highest-risk sections; according to RFE, the decision does not mention the Seveso status. The Secretariat gave no reasons for its decision and, despite an order from the Commissioner, refused to release the technical inspection report, citing trade secrets.
In 2021, a provincial building inspector ordered part of the construction site closed, specifically the raw material and sulphur storage, the carbon black facility and the raw material mixing facility, and the Secretariat rejected Linglong's application for a building permit for those facilities. RERI (2020) and Civic Turnaround (2021) filed criminal complaints over construction without a permit; their outcome is not known.
According to RFE, production began in May 2023 in trial operation, before an occupancy permit had been issued, and the factory obtained a permit for its waste storage facility only in June 2024.
In May 2024, acting on a lawsuit by RERI and Civic Turnaround, the Administrative Court annulled the approval that the Zrenjanin City Administration had given in 2020 to Linglong's impact assessment study for its production plants. In January 2025, when the factory was already operating, the city gave its approval again and found that the project does not threaten the environment. Civic Turnaround has challenged that decision before the Administrative Court.
Air emissions are measured by the company itself, which submits reports to the city; according to these, permitted limits have not been exceeded, but the city has no automatic monitoring station near the factory. According to a document from the public water company Vode Vojvodine, the Begej has been rated as class V water (poor), with more poor parameters downstream of Linglong's discharge point than upstream.
In October 2026, residents reported a strong smell and smoke coming from the direction of the factory; the cause has not been established. In May 2026, MP Sonja Pernat requested documentation on the factory's safety, and the provincial authorities referred her to the city.
The case of the Vietnamese and Bangladeshi workers at the same factory is a separate affair: Vietnamese workers at the Linglong factory in Zrenjanin.