Brnabic to Put Opposition's Anti-Lithium Draft Law on Parliament's Agenda

Ana Brnabic, New Serbian Parliament Speaker, March 20 2024 (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

Serbian National Assembly Speaker Ana Brnabic has announced that she will place a draft law on banning lithium and boron mining, which was submitted by 86 opposition MPs earlier on Sept. 10, on the parliament's agenda.

In her words, the current opposition "brought Rio Tinto" to Serbia when it was in power in 2001, gave the company initial exploration rights in 2004, amended laws in order to "take something from the state and give to Rio Tinto," while the same people "are today seeking a ban on geological exploration of lithium and boron."

Ecological Uprising MP Danijela Nestorovic previously said in parliament that the draft law had to end up on the agenda. "We have united over the fundamental rights of people: to clean water, air and soil, and nothing will divide us in that regardless of the ideological differences," said Nestorovic.

Leader of the People's Movement of Serbia Miroslav Aleksic recalled the conclusions of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts reached at the scientific gathering on the Jadar project in 2021, according to which there are no conditions for the project to be accepted because it would lead to "mass devastation of (the particular) space, degradation of biodiversity and water, and relocation of the population."

Freedom and Justice Party Vice President Marinika Tepic said the opposition would not abandon efforts to investigate who had hidden the people's petition on banning lithium mining which had been delivered to the parliament, and added that someone would have to be held accountable and be punished for that because laws and the Constitution had been violated.