Last month, Serbia signed a series of agreements with the European Union and Germany, allowing large European car manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and Stellantis, which are members of the EU and the European continent, to have priority access to lithium produced in Serbia. These agreements were reached just one week after the Supreme Court of Serbia ruled that the annulment of the 2022 withdrawal of Rio Tinto's $2.4 billion Jadar lithium project license was unconstitutional. A week before these agreements, the Serbian Supreme Court overturned the 2022 decision to revoke the license for the $2.4 billion Jadar lithium project by the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, deeming the license revocation unconstitutional and re-approving the development of the Jadar lithium project. It is known that this lithium mine project is the largest in Europe.

On the previous Monday, thousands of people took to the streets across Serbia to protest the re-approval of the project and the recent agreements signed with the EU. Protests were held simultaneously in towns such as Šabac, Kraljevo, Aranđelovac, Ljig, and Barajevo.

To quell domestic protests, Vučić said in his speech, "There will be no digging in the fields, there will be no change in the fields. Nothing will happen in the next 12 to 18 months until we ourselves have all (expert) guarantees," "They are deceiving you every day. They are lying to you every day. We must collect all the documents, we will invite the best experts from abroad, but we will also hire the best environmental protection experts from Serbia, those who can guarantee absolute safety for everyone," he added.

 

According to previous plans, the Jadar lithium mine project is expected to be operational by 2028, producing 58,000 tons of lithium ore annually, meeting 17% of Europe's electric vehicle production needs, which is approximately equivalent to the output of 1.1 million electric vehicles. Jadar will also propel Rio Tinto into the ranks of the top ten lithium producers globally.