Svilanovic: Serbian Lithium Among Most Important Topics for EU, Not Discussed in Serbia

Serbian lithium is among the three most important topics in the relations of the Western Balkans and the European Union, but nobody is talking about it openly in Serbia.

The former minister of foreign affairs and the former secretary-general of the Regional Cooperation Council Goran Svilanovic says so for Demostat.

He points out that it is important to be said, so that there would be an open discussion in the public about the potential damage, but also the benefit for the state from the mining of lithium, Demostat writes.

He says that the possibility of Serbia becoming one of the EU’s suppliers of critical materials has left room for Serbia to be more important than so far in the eyes of the European partners in the geopolitical sense, but also opened the question of how Serbia could use this in the economic sense.

Svilanovic explains that, due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the EU has decided to reduce the dependence on China and Russia to a minimum and that, for that reason, it is looking for countries in its wider surroundings that could be part of the redefined supply chains, pertaining, among other things, to critical materials as well, which is where Serbia comes into picture.

He says that he first became aware of this fact two years ago at the European Forum Albach in Austria, when the then director for the Western Balkans at the European External Action Service talked about the lessons learned and mentioned Serbian lithium in that context.

– We couldn’t believe it when we heard that. First, the people from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro said “all you even talk about is Serbia,” and our reaction was “well, it’s something that’s very controversial in the Serbian public.” We reacted in the sense of “wait, what are you talking about?” and the answer was “yes, we only see Serbia” – Svilanovic said.

Two years later, he says, Sweden, as the EU presiding country, in July 2023, proposed the forming of a group at a high level of around 30 people, of which he is also a member, and whose task is to prepare a report on the interdependence between the EU and its neighborhood – about which countries the EU communicates well with and which countries could be part of the redefined supply chains.

– We don’t discuss membership, but energy dependence, food, people, where the labor force is coming from, why people are migrating. In that context, the topic of critical raw materials and materials necessary for this whole area has opened – Svilanovic explained.

Svilanovic explains that critical raw materials are topic number three in the relations between the European Union and the Western Balkans, as confirmed at the summits in Tirana in October and in Brussels in November 2023.

Goran Svilanović

lithium from Serbia

Serbian lithium

mining of lithium in Serbia