# Working with developers in Serbia: time zone, language, holidays

URL: https://brainpowergroup.eu/en/blog/working-with-developers-in-serbia
Date: 2026-06-11
By: Maarten ter Velde, Brainpower Group

Developers in Serbia work in Central European Time and in good English. What differs: public holidays, names and the GDPR, as Serbia is not in the EU.

Working with developers in Serbia is much like working with a team in your own office: you share a time zone and work in English, and the English is good. The differences are in the public holidays and in the fact that Serbia is not part of the EU. Both are easy to plan for once you know about them.

## Serbia shares your time zone

Serbia runs on the same clock as the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany: CET in winter, CEST in summer. A stand-up at 9:30 is at 9:30 for everyone. You do not have to plan overlap hours and nobody joins calls in the evening.

A question asked at eleven in the morning can still be answered the same day. I explain why I weigh that more heavily than the hourly rate in [my post on time zone and rate](/en/blog/why-time-zone-matters-more-than-rate).

## English as the working language

Our working language is English, for tickets, pull requests, documentation and meetings. Clients also have a Dutch point of contact, based in Amsterdam, for anything about the collaboration itself.

The English is good. In the EF English Proficiency Index 2025, Serbia ranks 25th of 123 countries and regions, in the high proficiency band. The Netherlands tops the same index. Serbian test takers score highest on reading (587) and lowest on speaking (499).

So put decisions in writing. A developer who reads a ticket without trouble can still miss something in a quick call, and a short written summary after the meeting prevents that. Your other colleagues will benefit just as much.

## Serbia has different public holidays

Serbia has its own public holidays, and several holidays common in Western Europe are normal working days there. Under Serbian law these days are off:

- 1 and 2 January, New Year;
- 7 January, Orthodox Christmas;
- 15 and 16 February, Statehood Day (Sretenje);
- Orthodox Easter, from Good Friday up to and including Easter Monday;
- 1 and 2 May, Labour Day;
- 11 November, Armistice Day.

If a state holiday falls on a Sunday, the next working day is off. Orthodox Easter often falls on a different date from Western Easter. In 2027 Western Easter is on 28 March and Orthodox Easter on 2 May.

Employees can also take certain days of their own faith off. For Orthodox employees that is the first day of their slava, the feast of the family's patron saint, which differs per family. Catholic and other Christian employees can take Christmas and Easter off according to their own calendar, and Muslim and Jewish employees have their own days.

Put both calendars in your team planning and ask a new developer for the date of their slava when they start. Ascension Day and Whit Monday are regular working days in Serbia, and so are 25 and 26 December for Orthodox employees. That has an upside: someone is at work when your own office is closed.

## Serbia, the EU and the GDPR

Serbia has been an EU candidate country since 1 March 2012. Accession negotiations formally started on 21 January 2014 and are still ongoing. There is no date for membership.

For the GDPR, that makes Serbia a third country, and the European Commission has not adopted an adequacy decision for it. If developers in Serbia have access to personal data, you need a separate basis for that transfer, usually the Commission's standard contractual clauses. Discuss this with your privacy officer or lawyer. Erik covers the technical measures in [his post on security and the GDPR](/en/blog/security-and-gdpr-with-remote-developers).

Our developers work on managed, encrypted laptops with centrally managed accounts and SSO with two-factor authentication, and our way of working is aligned with the GDPR and NIS2. Your own agreements about personal data come on top of that.

## Names and alphabets

Serbian is written in both Cyrillic and Latin script. The Latin alphabet includes letters such as č, ć, đ, š and ž. Make sure your systems handle them, including your HR software and Jira. A developer called Đorđe should not show up as "?or?e" in your ticket system.

## Treat them as your own team

My most important advice has little to do with country or language. Developers who work for you through us are part of your team. Add them to the same Slack channels, invite them to the retro and the demo, and give them the same context as your in-house developers. A separate "Serbian team" that gets tickets thrown over the wall works worse than a team that has a say in what gets built.

If you want to meet the team, you can visit Belgrade, Novi Sad or Niš. How to plan such a visit is in [the post on meeting your remote team](/en/blog/meeting-your-remote-team-in-person).

## Sources

- [EF English Proficiency Index 2025, Serbia](https://www.ef.com/wwen/epi/regions/europe/serbia/)
- [EF English Proficiency Index 2025, press release](https://www.ef.com/ca/about-us/press/articles/2025/ef-english-proficiency-index-2025-launched/)
- [Serbian Law on State and Other Holidays](https://www.paragraf.rs/propisi/zakon_o_drzavnim_i_drugim_praznicima_u_republici_srbiji.html)
- [Dates for Western and Orthodox Easter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_for_Easter)
- [European Commission, Serbia and EU enlargement](https://enlargement.ec.europa.eu/countries/serbia_en)
- [European Commission, adequacy decisions](https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/data-protection/international-dimension-data-protection/adequacy-decisions_en)

## Frequently asked questions

**Is Serbia in the same time zone as the Netherlands and Germany?**

Yes. Serbia uses CET in winter and CEST in summer, like the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. You work the same hours.

**What are the public holidays in Serbia?**

The days off are 1 and 2 January, 7 January (Orthodox Christmas), 15 and 16 February, Orthodox Easter from Good Friday to Easter Monday, 1 and 2 May and 11 November. Orthodox employees can also take the first day of their slava off.

**Is Serbia a member of the EU?**

No. Serbia has been a candidate country since 2012 and has been negotiating accession since 2014. Under the GDPR it is a third country without an adequacy decision.

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Source: https://brainpowergroup.eu/en/blog/working-with-developers-in-serbia
Brainpower Group, contact: https://brainpowergroup.eu/en/contact, hello@brainpowergroup.eu