The EU seals an agreement with Serbia for lithium, criticizes von Cramon: In favor of Vucic’s power

The EU has celebrated an agreement with Serbia on lithium mining as a “historic day for both Serbia and Europe”, thus ending the race to sign the agreement.

On Tuesday, Serbia renewed mining giant Rio Tinto’s license to mine the mineral in the Jadar Valley in the west of the country.

On Thursday evening, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was in Belgrade and pleaded for an agreement which, in his opinion, would help to protect Europe’s economic security.

Scholz wanted to ensure that his country’s automotive industry was at the front of the queue for supplies.

Car manufacturers will need more and more lithium for batteries as the transition to zero-emission vehicles accelerates – and Rio Tinto’s Jadar project could supply up to nine-tenths of Europe’s current lithium needs.

European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic was also in Belgrade on Friday.

He was joined by what he described as the “crème de la crème” of European companies with a strong interest in a new source of lithium.

These included Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis, which together account for almost a quarter of all car sales in Europe, writes BBC.

Representatives from lithium battery manufacturers also watched as Serbia and the EU signed an agreement to create a “strategic partnership for sustainable raw materials, battery production chains and electric vehicles”.

While Sefcovic called it a historic day, Olaf Scholz celebrated securing access to the continent’s best-known lithium reserves – which should reduce dependence on supplies from China.

“This decision requires courage, but it was taken at the right moment,” he said, adding that the move would ensure that Europe ‘remains sovereign in a changing world’ and ‘is not dependent on others’.

That was praise for Serbia’s leaders, who lifted a ban on lithium mining after a court ruling last week declared it unconstitutional. The government imposed the moratorium in 2022 following widespread protests across the country.

Not only environmentalists took part in the demonstrations. Many of those blocking roads and bridges were young people in protest. They were all concerned that a foreign company had acquired the mining rights through what they saw as a non-transparent process.

And they were concerned about the potential impact on important food and water sources in the Jadar Valley.

These concerns have not gone away, despite assurances from Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić that the environment will be preserved.

Vucic was also keen to emphasize the potential economic benefits. He insisted that the lithium from Jadar would remain in place.

Maros Sefcovic said this meant that Serbia would be the first European country where “the entire value chain from lithium to electric vehicles will be built here in Serbia”.

The opposition parties are still not convinced by the president’s environmental assurances. They never believed that the lithium mine would be destroyed forever. Now they are demanding transparency about the revived Rio Tinto project.

“There is a complete lack of trust in the government when it says that it is in the interest of the citizens,” says Biljana Djordjevic, co-chair of the Left-Green Movement.

“We fear that Serbia will sacrifice itself to provide lithium for electric vehicles, which almost no one in Serbia can afford.”

This means that despite the celebrations in Brussels, Berlin and Belgrade, protests against lithium mining in rural Serbia are likely to become serious again.

However, former European Parliament rapporteur for Kosovo, Viola Von Cramon, said that this agreement will favor the power of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and stressed that Serbia lacks democracy.

In her reaction on the X platform to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to Belgrade, she said that the EU really needs lithium, but not in this form.

“It is undeniable that the EU needs lithium and must switch to e-mobility.” I would have liked to see other solutions than this gain in power for Aleksandar Vučić. The rule of law and democracy are foreign words for Vucic. “The media are almost completely under his control,” she said

/TheGeopost