Croatian MEP calls EU to speak up about lithium mining in Serbia

Gordan Bosanac MEP told a panel discussion organized by the Greens that the European Union can’t advocate a short-term solution that will destroy the environment and lives of the people living around the planned mine. “Lithium is a material important to the green transition but the only acceptable transition is a just green transition,” he is quoted as saying in a press release from his cabinet. He added that the approach to mining lithium in Serbia has a lot of unjust elements.

According to him, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is to blame for the repression against the public and civil society and is using the opportunity to reinforce his position with the EU.

Bosanac said the EU needs to speed up its transition to a green, circular economy and lower its dependence on rare minerals and new raw materials in a way that ensures that those materials are mined, processed and recycled in non-EU states under the same standards as in Union member states.