Plan follows project: legislative reform in Serbia and Ireland under the guises of flexibility and certainty

This paper examines recent planning law reforms in Serbia and Ireland as countries with contrasting planning traditions but shared exposure to neoliberal development pressures. While reforms were justified as responses to systemic rigidity (in Serbia) and investor uncertainty (in Ireland), the analysis reveals a shared systemic tendency towards accommodation of private development interests at the expense of public planning objectives. Both countries converge on a neo-performative logic – where the plan follows the project – centralising planning authority, restricting democratic participation, and expanding project-specific instruments that bypass comprehensive planning. The paper concludes with policy recommendations to safeguard the public-interest function of planning.