Expert: EU, Germany Trading Democracy, Balkan’s EU Outlook for Lithium

Lithium (Photo: Pixabay)

Florian Bieber, director of the Center for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz, said on June 20 that, by signing the Memorandum of Understanding on strategic raw materials with Serbia, the European Union and Germany had exchanged democracy, the rule of law and the Balkans' European outlook for lithium, adding that this approach meant that EU enlargement was "dead."

"There are no independent institutions in Serbia, nor independent media with national coverage. There is no room for a critical civic society. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the mining project will be in line with Serbian standards, let alone EU standards," Bieber said in a post on the X social media platform in response to the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding.

Bieber recalled that mass protests in 2021 had stopped the first attempted lithium excavation project in Serbia, and that now the EU and Germany were openly supporting the project after election fraud and a deterioration in the rule of law. "The message will be heard across the Western Balkans. A deal that serves the EU is more important than values. With that kind of approach, EU enlargement is dead," Bieber added.