Vucic and Scholz agreed on lithium supplies from Serbia to the EU

The EU and Serbia signed an agreement to develop the supply of lithium for the production of batteries for electric cars, reported AFP.
This happened during a meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission (EC) Vice President Maros Šefčović.
The deal came just days after Belgrade decided to restart a project to build a lithium mine.
Vucic thanked Scholz for Germany's support, which the Serbian leader considers crucial for the implementation of the project.
"German Chancellor Olaf Scholz secured Germany's support for Serbia to have a larger lithium production chain. This will bring us billions of investments and incredible progress for the whole country, and most of all for Western Serbia," said the head of state.
"Environmental protection standards must be respected to the highest degree, and our goal is to be a reliable partner of Germany and the EU in the lithium and battery production chain," said Vucic.
Scholz pointed out that critical raw materials are important for both citizens and the future.
The chancellor pointed out that he was glad to see in Belgrade a large number of representatives of the raw materials market, who are participating in the project for the exploitation of mineral raw materials. He pointed out that there are many reasons for the implementation of the "Zhadar" project in Serbia.
"This is an important moment to discuss the significant potential of the Jadar project. A large number of people have worked tirelessly to make all of this possible today, and I would like to thank them for their dedication and hard work. Only in this way was it possible to meet today and talk," the head of government said.
According to him, there are many reasons for this project and according to him it is a good project for Serbia.
"It creates new potentials for the value chain, provides opportunities for job creation, not only when it comes to mining, but also in other stages of processing, connects Serbia to the future of mobility, which must operate without CO2 emissions." So this is a turning point for mobility in the future," Scholz said, stressing that everything will be done in accordance with the highest environmental standards.
Vucic said that lithium production in Serbia will enable the country to make a quantum leap into the future. He added that it is up to Serbia to be a reliable partner of Europe, Germany and the whole world in the entire production chain, while ensuring full environmental protection.
The Serbian president pointed out that the deal had been worked on for a long time together with Scholz's office and that Serbia's demands were high.
Vucic highlighted three important things in the implementation of the project, the first of which is the complete protection of the environment.
"There are also the biggest experts who know how to do it, without full protection there will be no project, but there will be, because we are attracting the best from Europe and the world to provide it for us," said the Serbian head of state .
As another matter, he highlighted the economic rise of Serbia, clarifying that he meant not only the ore, but also all these factories, which he defined as billion-dollar investments in the Serbian economy.
"They will provide direct and indirect employment to tens of thousands of people. Our salaries in Macva and Podrine are much lower than those in Novi Sad, Sremska Mitrovica and Belgrade. The project will be an opportunity to change this situation. But this will also be an opportunity for the development of all of Serbia. Both she (Serbia - ed.) and I thank Chancellor Scholz for saying that the German government will help with this, and we have had such a promise from the very beginning of the European Commission, and I am sure that today we hear confirmation of these words that we are working on the whole chain, and when the If batteries are produced here, then I am absolutely sure that in addition to one electric car manufacturer, we can have another electric car manufacturer," said Vucic.
As a third important thing, he singled out the support of the public. The president emphasized that he knows that there will not be wider public support at the beginning, as it is lacking for all major projects. He added that he believes people will support their government and country more when they see how hard they work.
Serbia has huge deposits of lithium near the western city of Loznica. It is there that the controversial mining project run by Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has been a constant political fault line in the Balkan country in recent years.
The government gave the mining project the go-ahead to resume operations earlier this week after revoking permits granted to Rio Tinto in 2022 following mass protests over environmental concerns.
The announcement came after Serbia's Constitutional Court ruled last week that the cancellation of the permits was "not in accordance with the constitution and the law". Thus the way was paved for the government to resume the project.| BGNES