Fresh protests threaten EU-backed lithium mining plan in Serbia

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - BELGRADE — Just days before signing a cooperation agreement with the EU on critical raw materials supply, Serbia gave the renewed go-ahead for Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto to develop what could be Europe’s largest lithium reserves — but further delay looks possible as a fresh wave of protests sweeps the country.

The Jadar mining project had been on hold since 2022 when Belgrade withdrew approval for a spatial plan for the 250-hectare site amid widespread public opposition.

But after a constitutional court ruled the move unlawful earlier this month, the government headed by President Aleksandar Vučić promptly adopted a decree on 16 July allowing the project to restart immediately.

Three days later, European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič inked a "strategic partnership" at a summit in the Serbian capital attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with both of them at pains to stress that environmental standards would be paramount — but this appears not to have assuaged the concerns of local environmental activists.

After days of local protests, Green groups have called for what they expect to be a mass demonstration in Belgrade on 10 August, the deadline set by the Alliance of Environmental Organisations of Serbia (SEOS) for the government to respond to citizens’ concerns over the mining project.

Environmentalists argue the project could cause significant damage to ecosystems and pollute the waterways in the Jadar Valley in the west of Serbia. Opposition groups more broadly say it would bring little benefit to Serbian citizens — a charge the EU executive robustly denies.

WWF Adria — the regional branch of the environmental NGO, which is not directly involved in the protests — told Euronews it was expecting the European Commission to help ensure Rio Tinto and any mining companies operating in the country are held to the same strict environmental standards they would have to meet in the EU.

“WWF is strongly advocating for adhering to the highest standards of environmental protection, we urge Rio Tinto to rely on responsible mining directives and we hope that EU institutions will be consistent in their approaches and policies inside, as well as outside the EU borders,” spokesperson Petra Boić Petrač said.

Asked whether it was concerned the new waves of protests could once again halt the lithium mining project, a spokesperson for the European Commission said it “does not comment on, or interfere in, internal affairs at national level”.

The EU executive told Euronews that “socially and environmentally responsible mining” was a “key tenet” of its global raw materials partnerships, of which the Serbian agreement was the fourteenth signed in just over three years.

With Europe’s energy transition dependent on rechargeable batteries in electric cars and an increasing amount of off-grid storage necessary to balance fluctuating wind and solar power, environmentalists and policymakers must weigh the benefits of leaving fossil fuels in the ground with the energy-intensive and potentially destructive process of mining lithium and other critical raw materials.

As a candidate country for EU membership, Serbia is “obliged to align legislation with European regulations, standards and approaches that are the most stringent in the world”, spokesperson Johanna Bernsel said.

“Our partnership will also give a further boost to deepen Serbia’s already high economic integration with the EU ahead of accession and full Single Market integration, in line with the ambition of the new Growth Plan for the Western Balkans,” Bernsel added while asserting that plans for battery and car manufacturing inside Serbia itself mean some 20,000 potential jobs are at stake.

Watching national developments closely, Rio Tinto — which discovered the huge lithium reserves back in 2004 — claims that the public discourse over the planned lithium mine has been polluted by disinformation and, according to one company insider who spoke to Euronews on condition of anonymity, “fake news” and politics.

“We recognize the right of Serbians to protest, however, we encourage people concerned about the environmental impact of the project to read the draft environmental impact assessments and associated information materials that we were made available publicly on 13 June,” a spokesperson for the mining and metals conglomerate said in an emailed statement.

Although the Serbian government’s U-turn has been presented as a green light for the mining project to go ahead, Rio Tinto is back to the position it was in just before the government halted the project in January 2022, while also having to recalculate capital expenditure and reset deadlines as it gets things moving again, meaning it could be years before the first lithium is extracted.

“While the Jadar Project spatial plan has been reinstated, the project is required to progress through an extended phase of legal, environmental impact assessment and permitting procedures, as well as public consultations and business evaluations, before the project can proceed,” Rio Tinto said. — Euronews