Thewesternbalkans
The European Union and Serbia have signed on 19 July a memorandum of understanding over the supply of battery materials during a “critical raw materials summit”.
The deal has been signed during the meeting attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič in the capital Belgrade.
Lithium is a strategically valuable metal crucial for making electric vehicle batteries, making it key for helping Germany’s flagship automotive sector shift to greener production.
Serbia has vast lithium deposits near the western city of Loznica, where a mining project run by the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has been developed.
President Aleksandar Vučić said Serbia could exploit lithium as early as 2028 following new guarantees from the Australian mining giant.
The government gave the mining project the green light to restart operations earlier this week.
The announcement came after Serbia’s constitutional court ruled last week that the permit cancellations were “not in line with the constitution and the law”, paving the way for the government to resume the project.
German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said this week that the deal came against the “backdrop of a sustainable lithium extraction project” in Serbia.
Following different estimations, Serbia’s lithium reserves in Loznica could produce an estimated 58,000 tonnes annually, enough for 1.1 million electric vehicles.
Opponents remain worried, however, over the mine’s impact on the environment and public health.
Critics of the mine have long accused Vučić’s government of having a poor track record with regulating its industrial sector.
Protestors also say the country is taking the biggest environmental risks with the mine for the sake of the EU’s transition to a green economy.
Ahead of the summit, Vučić said the deal would involve guarantees that limited the sale of raw materials from the country and ensure that most of the lithium exports would be through Serbian-produced batteries or component parts.
“The partnership will further strengthen political relations and promote long-term economic growth in Serbia and the EU, contributing to Serbia’s efforts to join the EU,” the Serbian government said in a statement on Thursday about the deal.
Comments: The lithium deposits near Loznica were discovered in 2004, but weeks of protests sparked by fears for the environment and public health forced the government to halt the project. This is a very important raw material for the automobile industry and it is not so easy for the people saving the environment to stop again the project.
There is a very interesting situation: Serbia does not follow the European sanctions against Russia, but has Lithium. That permits to the Serbian Government and President to play on this cart. In the other side the European Commission also has a possibility to play on a double track approach to Serbia.
