Izvan Plana: Deregulacija, Ekspo Beograd 2027 I Javni Interes

In recent years, a significant intensification of the trend toward deregulation has been observed in urban planning documents in Serbia. This trend ranges from designating regulatory plans as merely indicative to explicitly prescribing shortened and simplified procedures. The negative spatial and social consequences of such tendencies are numerous. This paper aims to illustrate, through the ongoing case of the Expo Belgrade 2027 exhibition, how de facto deregulation operates, undermines the planning process, and creates harmful spatial impacts. By analysing two key documents in this case study—the Law on Special Procedures for the Implementation of the International Specialized Exhibition EXPO Belgrade 2027 (the so-called lex specialis, including proposed amendments) and the Spatial Plan for the Special-Purpose Area of the National Football Stadium—we will demonstrate that fragmented planning, reduced public participation in the decision-making process, and diminished expert oversight in the implementation of plans are, on the one hand, structurally logical consequences of deregulation, but on the other, directly opposed to what could generally be considered the public interest.