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Speaker of the Serbian Parliament Anna Burnabic It said today that the previous government legally gave Rio Tinto the mining rights through legal changes in 2006 and 2011. Because she changed the law, only those with exploration rights can obtain mining rights, stressed retired geology professor Zoran Stevanović, who also acknowledged this.
Brnabic told TV Pink that she was surprised when she saw Stefanovic admit this in an interview with Novi magazine.
“This is what I said, and President Aleksandar Vucic also said it, and people in the Serbian government also said it, and we said it in the National Assembly. Then the previous government, and now the opposition, was protesting against lithium, against Rio Tinto, and in fact, “Professor Stefanovic said, they changed the regulations, who actually had the exploration rights, and they gave the exploration rights to Rio Tinto so that the company was the only one that could obtain the mining rights,” said Brnabic.
She added that the previous government had established this as a legal norm and the Serbian Progressive Party could not change anything after coming to power.
“If we change the laws in a certain way, they cannot be applied retroactively to the Jadar project and Rio Tinto. So yes, they gave the mining rights to Rio Tinto and today they are protesting against Rio Tinto and against Rio Tinto.” Lithium and against mining, Burnabic said.
She quoted Professor Stevanović as saying that by introducing certain rules, those who have the right to investigate and exercise that right can become the only ones to apply for exploitation rights and there will be no competition, that is, the state does not decide whether to do so.
“So, we were not even required to be the Serbian Progressive Party because they changed the rules and it had to be Rio Tinto,” Brnabic said.
She stressed that it is extremely important that, at the insistence of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić when he was Prime Minister and now as President of the Republic, it was decided that no project will be carried out at any cost if it is not a safe and sustainable life.
She also noted that there would be no exports of raw materials.
“Our wealth will be used in Serbia to strengthen our economy, our geopolitical position and our economy and industry. We will certainly introduce full transparency and inform the public about everything that is being done. This is what we can do. Do what we do,” Brnabic said.
Speaking about the protests against lithium, Brnabic said that as she put it, those protesters don’t really care about the environment and lithium.
“Because these people who are participating in the lithium protests know nothing. The previous government, who are participating in these protests today and organizing some of them, the previous government asked Rio Tinto, gave the power of investigation and changed the regulations so that those regulations will allow that whoever is in power in the future will have to give the mining rights to Rio Tinto and not to anyone else,” said the speaker of the Serbian parliament.
As she sees it, lithium is an opportunity for economic development, and those organizing the protests are trying to hijack the state.
“These people are politically active and they use this to steal the country from citizens and prevent any development in Serbia. Because lithium is not only an opportunity for economic development. Lithium is our opportunity to change the geostrategic position of Serbia. For us, we are not really a monopoly, but we are not far from it,” Brnabić said.
As she said, when you see the attack on Aleksandar Vucic and the support for the protests from Pristina, Zagreb and Sarajevo, it is clear that this is very important for Serbia’s economic, political and geostrategic position.
“This has nothing to do with the environment. So this is a political fight and at the end of the day, I haven’t seen any signatures on the proposal made by President Aleksandar Vucic. Bring 70 signatures to the assembly. We will give it to the president, who is the only one directly elected,” Brnabic said. “We will hold a referendum on the impeachment of the president, who is the only one directly elected.”
(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)
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