Vucic: Jadar Valley Lithium Mine to be Declared Strategic EU Project

Gornje Nedeljiice (BETAPHOTO/Sasa Djordjević)

In an evening statement delivered in Brussels on March 25, President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic said that, within the next seven to eight days, the European Union would declare the Jadar Valley lithium mining project in Serbia a strategic project outside EU territory.

Following a working dinner with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa, Vucic told Serbian media that those who “rejoiced” when Project Jadar failed to appear on the EU’s strategic project list on March 25 had done so “too soon.”

“These people are not stupid, they are simply malicious and a bit illiterate, and always in a hurry. They don’t know that [on March 25] only projects within the EU were discussed. In seven or eight days, however, the EU will announce [Project] Jadar as its strategic project outside EU territory. In their hurry, [those who claimed differently] lied again,” Vucic stated.

On March 25, the EC issued its first ever list of 47 strategic projects under the Critical Raw Materials Act, whose goal is promoting domestic raw material capacities, strengthening Europe’s value chain of raw materials and diversifying raw material sources for the Union.