Follow the Money: Rio Tinto had exchanges with German officials prior to agreement with Serbian government

In its replies, the German government revealed on 21 May that Rio Tinto had six exchanges with German officials prior to the event in the Serbian capital, which were to pave the way for lithium mining project in the Jadar valley.

Some of these exchanges were conducted in person and others via videoconference or phone, reads the story titled “Lip Service for Lithium.”

An agreement on lithium was signed on 19 July 2024 by European Union (EU) Commissioner Maros Sefcovic in the presence of the then German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and representatives from the car companies Mercedes and Stellantis, the outlet noted. According to the unpublished replies, Scholz personally received Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm in Berlin in September 2023. The Chancellor also met Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in June 2022 and discussed the lithium agreement with him over the phone in May 2024.

The Jadar valley project aims to provide lithium for the production of batteries for electric vehicles, but it has also faced criticism due to environmental risks to groundwater. Nevertheless, the current Chairwoman of the German Green Party, Franziska Brantner, played an important role in the lead-up to the signing ceremony in Belgrade, reads the story.

As a Parliamentary Secretary of State in the then Green-run Ministry of the Economy, she took part in five meetings regarding the lithium initiative, the newly released government replies show.

She not only participated in two talks with the Rio Tinto CEO but also in three meetings with Vucic in September 2022, February 2023 and February 2024.

The Serbian President personally praised the Green politician at the press conference held in Belgrade on 19 July for her “dedicated work.”

Brantner did not respond to questions. Last August, she announced that lithium in Serbia should “only be produced using environmentally friendly processes.”

Charlotte Neuhauser, a German Member of Parliament from The Left, has now accused her of simply paying “lip service to soothe the green conscience.”

Among the critics of the EU Serbia agreement are experts from the German Heinrich Boll Foundation, which is affiliated with the Green party. An influential German government-funded think tank, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), has also recently warned about the risks associated with the lithium agreement.

“Given years of backsliding on the rule of law and limited progress in Serbia’s EU accession negotiations, the EU must retain the option of withdrawing its support for the Jadar Project,” the three authors of an SWP report wrote in March, reported the investigative news outlet Follow the Money.