Academic community of Serbia and students in blockade demand EC to abandon Jadar project - Rio Tinto denies claims

He added that the academic community is also concerned about the absence of a serious assessment of the impact of the "Jadar" project on the health of the population, because there is nothing in the key strategic documentation to date, with the exception of the statement that the impact on human health will be monitored, only after the project has been implemented.

The community is concerned, as he said, due to the complete non-transparency of Rio Tinto's operations in Serbia, including a ban on state authorities from providing the public with access to relevant documentation related to the development of the project, then due to the systemic threat to the property rights of citizens through the expropriation of private property in favor of the private interests of that company, as well as due to the documented violation of Serbian law by the company in the field of agricultural land protection, waste management, mining and geological research, environmental protection and tax regulations.

The seventh point refers to the adjustment of legal regulations in the field of mining and environmental research of Rio Tinto including the unconstitutional adoption of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act and the Law on Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment.

- The academic community is concerned about the state administration's subservient attitude towards the company resulting in the adoption of illegal administrative acts that favor the company, and to the detriment of the people and the country, then due to well-founded suspicion of systemic corruption

which follows the development of the project and for indications that the competent authorities of Serbia gave direct approval to the company to submit an application for the Jadar project in the EU strategic projects competition, despite the fact that a convincing majority of citizens are against that project - Lakušić stated.

The representatives of the students in the blockade read a student letter which, they said, is

the product of a workshop organized by the plenum of students of the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy in Belgrade in cooperation with students of the Faculty of Biology and other faculties.

Also, the Coalition of Serbian NGOs National Convention on the European Union (NCEU) sent a letter to the European Commission representatives, in which they expressed concern about the consequences that the inclusion of the "Jadar" project in the list of strategic projects of the European Union (EU) could have, among which is the decrease in the trust of Serbian citizens in the EU.

According to them, at this moment, more than 60% of Serbian citizens oppose the implementation of the "Jadar" project, for which the use of technology that has not been used anywhere in the world is planned.

Responding to certain claims from that press conference, Rio Tinto states that there are no proven adverse consequences in the form of water and soil contamination at the sites on which geological research was carried out for the "Jadar" project.

They stated that they understand and respect the concerns of students, citizens and certain representatives of the academic community, but they call on everyone to "take responsibility for what they say in order to preserve academic integrity".

They added that the European Union clearly demonstrates this with its actions that the development of lithium projects is not considered a risk, but rather as an opportunity for sustainable development, economic competitiveness and strategic security, implementing those projects in accordance with the highest EU standards.