Protest in Brussels scheduled ahead of screening of documentary, debate on Jadar lithium project

Serbian diaspora group Palac gore is organizing a protest on February 5 outside of the European Parliament in Brussels against lithium mining in the Balkan country. The gathering is set to be held ahead of a debate in the institution on the topic, including the screening of a documentary on Rio Tinto’s Jadar project.

In the meantime, activists in Bogatić, near the Jadar area, said they would hold a protest against another project for lithium and boron exploration. Separately, investigative journalists have discovered that last year the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia issued its nature protection requirements for Rio Tinto’s investment without considering the objections of some of its own experts.

The upcoming panel discussion in Brussels on lithium mining in Serbia prompted environmentalists to schedule a protest outside of the European Parliament, which is hosting the debate. The invitation-only event will include the avant-première of a documentary on Rio Tinto’s controversial project Jadar, directed by Stijn van Baarle and featuring Peter Tom Jones as the presenter.

Research Associate Aleksandar Matković from the Institute of Economic Sciences in Belgrade is speaking both at the protest and later inside the European Parliament’s building. Ahead of the two gatherings, he said Peter Tom Jones, director of the KU Leuven Institute for Sustainable Metals and Minerals (SIM² KU Leuven), made Serbian activists who oppose the Jadar project look like “Russian agents.”

No one saw documentary yet

Matković acknowledged in an interview that he didn’t see the documentary, called Not in My Country: Serbia’s Lithium Dilemma, and added that none of the announced speakers has, either.

Nevertheless, he accused Jones of favoring Rio Tinto: “Every one of his movies is the same. He presents the companies a little, and a little also the activists, who are portrayed as idiots, while in the movie about Serbia he mocks villagers and portrays us as Russian hirelings.”

Matković claimed the film was funded by foreign corporations including Rio Tinto and some Serbian corporations.

The authors published a trailer in December. Matković also said he has refused to participate in the documentary.

“Primarily because of its fight against Rio Tinto and everything that we accomplished, our movement eventually shed light on huge corruption and corruptive acts that appeared as a consequence of the government’s introduction of the Jadar project: from bad environmental impact assessments, from so-called salami slicing – splitting the project to several parts, from the economic study which had questionable significance, from the way activists were treated, as well as threatened, and the beatings of activists, and the scientists that were called out by members of the government because of the things that they wrote, or they sometimes directly confronted the members of the government,” he stated.

Matković himself received death threats after criticizing project Jadar and the government, for supporting it.

Debate on Jadar project is important for EU’s decision on its status

Peter Tom Jones will speak at the debate, according to the announcement. Nebojša Petković, an activist from the local group Ne damo Jadar, which opposes Rio Tinto’s project, said he would participate as well.

Rio Sava Exploration, the Serbian subsidiary of Rio Tinto, has applied to receive the status of a strategic project under the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). Matković said the Critical Raw Materials Board is expected to meet this month and stressed the significance of the panel discussion.

The protest is organized by Serbian diaspora group Palac gore (thumb up). It invited several members of the European Parliament to speak as well. “We stand on the side of civil society who oppose the Rio Tinto project and we want to show clearly that company propaganda is not welcome here at the parliament,” MEP Carola Rackete told Balkan Green Energy News.

Zlatko Kokanović from Ne damo Jadar is among the speakers. The group is based in Gornje Nedeljice, the location of Rio Tinto’s proposed lithium mine and processing plant.

“We call upon international environmental advocates, human rights defenders, and members of the Serbian and Balkan diaspora, as well as concerned citizens across Europe to participate in a peaceful demonstration opposing both the biased representation in this documentary and the broader issue of lithium extraction at the expense of communities, ecosystems and democracy,” the organizers said.

Jones: Rubbish from people who haven’t seen film or they watched early draft versions

Balkan Green Energy News, which declined in September to participate in the documentary, reached out to Peter Tom Jones for a comment regarding the accusations.

“All kind of rubbish is now being written by people who haven’t even seen the film or who have watched (leaked?) early draft versions, which were provided confidentially, for reviewing purposes. People are extrapolating from a 1-min trailer, which is meant to whet the appetite of viewers. No more, no less. It’s not a very scientific approach to criticize something based on speculation,” he stated.

The documentary is co-developed and fully financed by the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), specifically through SIM² KU Leuven, Jones wrote earlier, “in response to a series of inquiries and hostile social media messages.” Funding comes from Horizon Europe’s LITHOS project, partially supplemented by internal KU Leuven funding and crowdfunding, he added.

“This is a story about local and national protests, about the metals we need to fight climate change, and about distrust and disinformation,” a narrator said in the trailer for the documentary.

In one part of the clip, Jones is presented with media clippings with headlines against the Jadar project. “This is an organized disinformation campaign. Who’s behind it? Is it the Russians?” he asks.

Backlash against potential lithium exploration in Bogatić, Šabac

Lithium exploration has caused controversy and resistance from locals and environmental organizations in Serbia over the past several years. Massive protests have held back numerous projects aside from Rio Tinto’s investment. Balkan Green Energy News has published a chronological overview of the key events in the development of the Jadar project since 2001, when Rio Tinto arrived in Serbia.

In the runup to the debate in Brussels, activists scheduled a protest in Bogatić in western Serbia for February 7 concerning the potential geological exploration of lithium and boron.

The municipality, located just north of Loznica, where the Jadar site is, has published a spatial plan for a public debate. The document shows that the Ministry of Mining and Energy has approved a request by a firm called Edelweis Mineral Exploration, for the Petlovača location. Three fifths of the exploratory field are in neighboring Šabac.

The municipal authority in Bogatić said it was firmly against such a project and that is requesting its removal from the local spatial plan.

Nature protection requirements for Jadar project were issued without expert input

The Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia issued its nature protection requirements for Rio Tinto’s Jadar project in August. However, it disregarded the objections and suggestions of several of its own experts, according to a new report from investigative newsroom CINS.

For instance, the document lacks an initial reference to habitats of protected species.

The institute determined the conditions soon after Serbia and the EU signed a memorandum of understanding in Belgrade for a strategic partnership in sustainable raw materials, battery value chains and electric vehicles, the article notes. President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attended the event.

Together with Maroš Šefčovič, who was at the time the European Commission’s executive vice-president for the European Green Deal, interinstitutional relations and foresight, they spoke highly of the Jadar project.