SERBIA: A Rejected Lithium Ban & more – 15th Oct 2024

Dobar dan from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 15th of October twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Thursday the 10th, the parliament rejected the changes to the Law on Mining aimed at banning lithium and boron exploration proposed by the opposition. Out of 214 MPs, 128 voted against the changes. Before the vote, opposition MPs highlighted the potential environmental harm ore mining and exploration could have on Serbia’s land and water. They also brought up that ahead of the previous elections, the ruling Serbian Progressive Party assured it had abandoned the Jadar project, but continued it after winning the elections. The Minister of Mining and Energy was present at the discussion and after the vote assured that the state would approve the Jadar project led by mining giant Rio Tinto only if the research proves it has no negative consequences for the environment.

Rio Tinto’s Jadar mining project has been a topic of discussion for the past few years in the country, sparking numerous protests demanding the ban on lithium mining. Environmental experts continue to warn of water and land pollution the project could cause to the western area of Jadar.

In other news, the presidents of Serbia and Turkey met in the capital, Belgrade, on Friday the 11th and discussed the countries’ economies and relations. They signed eleven different agreements and memorandums of cooperation covering several fields, including the economic and industrial sectors. Turkish President Erdogan said that the trade between Serbia and Turkey had reached two billion dollars in the past two years, adding that Turkey has invested more than 400 million dollars in Serbia so far. President Vucic said that the two countries have a successful exchange of services, as Turks make up a large number of foreign workers, as well as tourists in Serbia.

While on the topic of bilateral relations, Serbia participated in the Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit on Wednesday the 9th, and along with other countries, adopted a joint declaration condemning Russian aggression against Ukraine. The declaration said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a violation of both international law and the UN Charter, and that it poses a major threat to Europe’s peace. It also highlighted the commitment to bringing individuals responsible for war crimes during the conflict to justice.

While Serbia has tried to remain neutral in the Russian-Ukraine war, it has repeatedly refused to impose sanctions on Russia for its aggression on Ukraine. Despite this, the country has been in support of Ukraine’s integrity and has called for the deoccupation of Crimea.

Since we mentioned aggression, the only three suspects arrested so far for the twenty twenty-three Banjska attack in Kosovo pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges on Wednesday the 9th. The indictment says that the three arrested men, along with forty-one other accused, started the attack in Banjska, which left one police officer and three perpetrators dead. The three men are charged with terrorism and with endangering the constitutional order of Kosovo. They are the only ones out of the forty-four men who are in Kosovo’s custody, as the rest are in Serbia.

Recall that in September last year, we covered the Banjska attack, where during which an armed group of men attacked Kosovo police in northern Kosovo. The attack was one of the most violent incidents to occur in Kosovo since it declared its independence from Serbia in two thousand eight.

In some news on the economy, the latest issue of the magazine Macroeconomic Analyses and Trends, or MAT, analyzed Serbia’s economy and concluded that its inflation remains among the highest in Europe. MAT noted that in the first four months of twenty twenty-four, Serbia’s GDP increased by four percent year-on-year, making it higher than the EU’s average of around one percent. It underlined the slowdown of industrial production due to several heat waves during the summer, which have affected primary agricultural production.

The rise in GDP alongside the reduced supply and higher demand for products due to the slowdown of industrial production, contributed to the increase of the year-on-year inflation. MAT said that the annual inflation amounted to around four percent at the end of August, staying the same in July, but also extending to September. Compared to the EU average of around two percent, Serbia’s year-on-year inflation is twice as high.

However, the Executive Board of the National Bank of Serbia considers the inflation to be within the target limits, and on Thursday the 10th announced that the benchmark interest rate will remain around six percent. Additionally, they decided to keep the deposit and lending facility rates the same. The board highlighted that they have reduced the benchmark interest rate by seventy-five basis points since June. As for the inflation, they said they expect it to remain at around four percent in twenty twenty-four, and then slow down to three percent in twenty twenty-five.

Still, citizens continue to experience growing prices in supermarkets, which has led the Commission for Protection of Competition, or the CPC, to suspect that retail chains are engaged in price fixing. They have since initiated proceedings against four major retail chains operating in Serbia - Delhaize, Mercator S, DIS and Univerexport. From April twenty twenty-three until March twenty twenty-four, CPC monitored these four chains, noting several suspicious activities, such as their prices being nearly twice as high as inflation. They also underlined that the regular prices of eight selected products, including milk, oil and sugar, were similar or the same across all these retailers despite the differences in the procurement conditions. This trend has led the CPC to suspect that the retailers engaged in restrictive agreements - that aim to limit and prevent competition - which is illegal.

Still in economics, on Tuesday the 8th the Association of Serbian Banks published a Credit Report which analyzed data on the credit indebtedness of individuals and legal entities to banks and other service providers. The total value of loans that businesses, entrepreneurs and citizens took in September amounts to around four billion dinars, which is around thirty-five million dollars. This marks a year-on-year increase of around nine percent. The report noted that there was an increase of around six percent in loans granted to citizens compared to September last year, amounting to around 1.6 billion dinars, or around fifteen million dollars. More than fifty percent were cash loans.

In more reports, research and publishing center Demostat conducted a survey, asking Serbian citizens about their satisfaction with their jobs, housing conditions, authorities, and overall quality of life. More than sixty percent of respondents said that they are satisfied with their lives, with the biggest impact on their satisfaction being their housing conditions and family life. Around forty percent of respondents are dissatisfied with the government, and nearly fifty percent expressed distrust of political and social institutions, mostly due to corruption and flaws in the judiciary, education, healthcare, and the state of democracy.

However, the trend of Serbian youth emigrating from the country due to bad life conditions is on the rise. On Monday the 15th, two youth organizations from Serbia and North Macedonia collaborated on a report titled Migration and Brain Drain, which focuses on ways to attract young migrants back to their home countries. The report analyzed answers from young people in Serbia, North Macedonia, and Albania and showed that the youth leave their home countries mostly due to low salaries, corruption, crime, political instability and lack of security. Among the very few reasons why the emigrated youth has to return back home are strong family ties and the desire to contribute to their home country’s development. In Serbia, people who leave the country are usually young and educated, with their average age being around twenty-eight.

Finally, some cultural news. The 60th edition of October Salon - the biggest international exhibition of contemporary art in Serbia - will take place from the 20th of October until the 1st of December. The Salon’s program will feature exhibitions focusing on social and ecological challenges. Several locations in the capital will host the event, including the galleries of the Cultural Center of Belgrade and the Salon of the Belgrade City Museum, among others. For more information, check out the link in the show notes!

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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Do daljnjeg, zbogom!