Vucic: Saxony's experience in mining and German expert assistance important to Serbia

FREIBERG - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who is on a one-day working visit to the German federal state of Saxony, said he had had an opportunity to see Germany's experience in mining and environmental protection as well as how German experts and their know-how could help mining projects in Serbia.

"As the president of a country, I was able to learn about the history of mining in Germany and entire Europe and, as early as in medieval times, Serbia cooperated with Saxony in mining and learned much from Saxony's experience in mining," Vucic said at a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

"Today, we discussed how German experts can help us in Serbia and, above all, how we could understand that we can protect the environment, ensure a normal life to people in whose neighbourhood a mine is being opened and, of course, potentially see the consequences all that brings, to be able to ensure that the processing itself is done in a completely painless way," Vucic said.

He said he was glad the German partners had also invited representatives of the Serbian NGO sector, opposition parties and anti-government media to be the first to visit Freiberg and Zinnwald.

"I regret that they did not speak more to the public in our country about their experiences, but I am also happy, especially happy that Petar Filipovic from Gornje Nedeljice is with us today. For people in Serbia who do not know, he is one of the people who came to speak against the (Jadar lithium mining) project and protested against it," Vucic said, adding that Filipovic had had an opportunity to ask questions and get adequate answers from Scholz and others.

"Serbia is extremely rich in ores, minerals and rare metals. Of course, public debates and discussions with people from the local community is what left a particular impression on us because here, too, there is agricultural land and the majority of people engage in agriculture... ...With support from German experts, we will be ready to answer every question," Vucic said.

He noted that, without a doubt, the project would bring many good things to Serbia and that the country would be able to secure a full value chain.

Scholz said the German government's assessment of the Jadar project was a positive one and that the same was the case with lithium mining in Germany, and added that meeting high environmental protection standards was the most important requirement.