Serbia plans to provide lithium supplies to the German automotive industry, which will allow Europe to stop depending on supplies of this raw material from China, Australia and Latin America. The opinion was expressed by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in an interview with the German newspaper Handelsblatt.
„This partnership is of great strategic importance for both countries. Germany will be the only country to which we will directly supply lithium. In this way, Serbia positions itself as a support for the German automotive industry, which needs this material for the production of batteries for electric vehicles. Until now, Europe was dependent on imports from China, Australia and South America. We want to put an end to this“, the Serbian president stressed.
Serbia and the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding on July 19, covering a strategic partnership in the field of raw materials. The document was signed in Belgrade in the presence of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. According to the Serbian leader, Belgrade can produce 58,000 tons of lithium per year and supply it to the EU. As Vučić noted, this amount would be enough in total to produce 1.1 million electric vehicles. In this case, Serbian supplies would account for about 17% of the European lithium market.
In 2022, the Serbian authorities abandoned a joint project with the Australian-British concern Rio Tinto to develop deposits of the lithium-containing mineral jadarite in the area of the city of Loznica. This came after a series of protests by environmental activists. In July 2024, the Constitutional Court of Serbia overturned this government decision, making it possible to resume the project.