Brnabic Can’t Confirm whether Scholz and Von der Leyen Are Coming to Belgrade

Ana Brnabic (BETAPHOTO/AMIR HAMZAGIC)

Speaking about media reports that Belgrade is expecting to host German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Serbian Assembly speaker Ana Brnabic on July 16 said she had “no confirmation whether they are coming or not.” 

Commenting on to the statement by Zlatko Kokanovic, a representative of the association We Won't Give Jadar Up, that Scholz and Von der Leyen “are not welcome” if they were coming to Serbia for the lithium issue, Brnabic told a news conference that for her, both officials were welcome to visit Serbia. “Olaf Scholz is the chancellor of Germany, whose companies employ more than 90,000 people in Serbia. For me, he is very welcome,” Brnabic stressed.

Brnabic also said she was having difficulties organizing a round table to discuss lithium mining, because, she said, experts had been avoiding to take part fearing from being targeted by “tycoon controlled media outlets.” Brnabic also said she advocated a public debate on the issue and would not like to schedule a parliament session before the expert community had given its say. 

Brnabic also said she did not forget the Jadar Project had been stopped in 2022 when she was the prime minister, “because it was clear that the issue was politicized,” noting that this was not the first time for the Constitutional Court to overturn a decision made by the cabinet of the parliament. Brnabic recalled that mining corporation Rio Tinto had been brought to Serbia by those who were now opposing its operation, and who during the rule of the Democratic Party had amended the Law on Mining, defining that the one who was issued exploration right, and they issued them to Rio Tinto, was also entitled to exploration rights.