Editor of Vreme: While Serbia is dealing with the issues of Kosovo, RS and lithium, the rule of law will always be "left in the drawer"

Ristic commented on a statement by professor for Southeast European History and Politics at the University of Graz, Florian Bieber, who wrote on X that there is no guarantee that the lithium mining project in Serbia will be in accordance with the standards of the country or the EU and that Germany and the EU have “exchanged democracy, rule of law & EU perspective for the Balkans for lithium”.
"Neither the European Union really wants us, nor does Serbia really want to join the European Union, it is a pretence that has been going on for a very long time,” said Ristic.

He said he does not believe that those who see the EU as the only possible path will change their attitude.

"I don't see that someone who believes that this is the right path for Serbia will say tomorrow - ‘okay, they don't like us, let's see what's in BRICS or what's happening with Russia’. I just don't think it's possible and I think the people in Brussels know that very, very well," he said.

He added that there is huge mistrust in Serbia regarding the topic of lithium mining.

"Not only on the issue of mining and the production of some batteries, not only on the state, but distrust in everyone and everything," Ristic said.

"What is the interest of the company? The interest of the company is to make a profit and that is a completely clear thing. What is the interest of people from Jadar? The interest of those people is to remain living where they have lived until now, and that is completely legitimate and completely clear. What is the interest of the state? And here we have to see what is actually the interest of the state of Serbia and what is Serbia doing if it has defined its interest - whether it is that economic growth of 12 percent that Slovakia has, I don't know, but we are presented with something huge figures, here we are only talking about billions", he said.