Assembly President Brnabic: I will organize a public hearing on the topic of lithium

Photo: Tanjug/Vladimir Sporcic

President of the Serbian Assembly Ana Brnabic said today that she will do her best to organize a public hearing or debate on the topic of lithium mining in our country, in which the opposition would also participate, and pointed out it is important to calm down the tone regarding this issue, which is of national interest.

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"I will ask the opposition to calm down the tone regarding this issue, because for me it is a topic of national interest. There is no need to wage a political war for the sake of cheap political points over something that can bring incredible economic prosperity to Serbia," Brnabic told RTS.

She called on all parliamentary groups, especially the opposition, if they are interested and concerned about lithium, to talk and to participate in the formation of a parliamentary commission that will have a kind of supervisory role around the issue.

"To have have all the information, not to throw statements around, to talk based on facts, to, as parliamentarians, look at all those studies, invite experts, rather than use this for a stupid political fight," said Brnabic.

She added that the challenge in public hearings and debates is that it is difficult to find professional, serious and responsible people who are apolitical and who will not be classified as Rio Tinto lobbyists if they say that they believe the project can be done in accordance with the highest standards of environmental protection, and that it does not negatively impact the environment.

"Let's not politicize, let's talk based on the facts. So, certainly, as the Assembly - public dialogue, round tables, public hearings, and then let's go to the plenum. That's my plan and I've been working on it for weeks," she said.

Brnabic also announced that as the president of the National Assembly, she would organize parliamentary visits to Germany and Finland in order to see how lithium projects are implemented in those countries.

"Let us go and see how it is done there and in Finland. And no one can say that Germany and Finland do not care about their citizens and that they do not care about environmental protection. They very much do, but they will mine their lithium. And in Finland, from an open mine, we have a closed mine," she stressed.

Brnabic added that she asked the service in the National Assembly to establish contacts with the embassies of the two countries in order to realize parliamentary visits, to see what the mines will look like.

"So let's calm down here and say, 'People, if Finland can do it and Germany can do it, why can't we?'. We are all interested in protecting the environment, let's see together how to do it, establish control mechanisms and I invite people to make suggestions, let's see how we can establish checks," said Brnabic.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)