Juratovic: emotional manipulation by leaders is the problem

According to him, the mining of lithium n Serbia is not the key issue, the key issue is whether the country’s institutions are powerful enough to oversee the implementation of standards.

Commenting Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ visit to Belgrade, Juratovic said that talks on strategic economic issues are usually kept quiet but that in this case one of the reasons why the public was not informed was President Aleksandar Vucic’s tactics, adding that the Serbian president uses the lithium mine issue to stay in power. Obviously, his manipulation is working perfectly both nationally and internationally which secures him in power but at the expense of the Serbian citizens, he added.

The EU never has not will it tolerate autocratic regimes but the lithium mining is an economic issue needed by all of Europe, he said.

Juratovic, an ethnic Croat Bundestag MP known to be critical of the authorities in the Western Balkans, said that Serbia is not the first autocratic-rule country that Germany and the European Union have economic dealings with. He said it’s better for everyone in Europe to have mutual agreement than with China. According to him, Germany and the democracies of Europe will remain critical of the Vucic regime and will continue providing assistance to the clear social and political alternatives in Serbia to get to democratic institutions at free and fair elections with no manipulation as at the latest elections.

He warned that Germany and the EU can’t guarantee any standards if democratic institutions don’t function in Serbia “which is why Scholz said he would urge the operating of those institutions in order to implement environmental and social standards in line with EU standards. He recalled that Scholz did not sign an agreement to mine lithium but an agreement on a strategic partnership on resources, battery chain values and electric vehicles which means that Serbia and the EU are obliged to trade in finished products not raw materials. “I think it’s safer to mine lithium in line with EU standards rather than Chinese standards,” he said.

According to Juratovic, the agreement signed in Belgrade will bring Serbia a step closer to the EU “even though Serbia has not shown any great interest in aligning with EU standards recently”.