Yesterday, the Constitutional Court of Serbia officially announced the decision by which it declared the government decree on stopping the Jadar project unconstitutional.
Following massive protests organized by environmental activists, the government revoked Rio Tinto's permit for the $2022 billion project in January 2,4.
"The government overstepped the limits of its jurisdiction by adopting the Regulation in a manner that is inconsistent with Article 3 of the Constitution and the provisions of the Law on Government and the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment," the court's decision states.
"Rio Tinto welcomes the decision of the Constitutional Court of Serbia," the company said in a statement to Reuters.
"We still believe that the Jadar project has the potential to become a world-renowned resource of lithium borate, which could serve as a catalyst for the development of other industries and thousands of jobs for current and future generations in Serbia."
The judges of the Constitutional Court have shown once again that the Constitutional Court is not a state but a party institution, and that they are ordinary employees of the Serbian Progressive Party, the Movement for Overturn assessed.
Zlatko Kokanović from the association "Ne damo Jadar" stated that the decision of the Constitutional Court was mostly expected, and that environmental activists and citizens will now fight for the adoption of a law on a permanent ban on geological research and the exploitation of lithium and boron in Serbia.
"I think that three years ago, the Government of Serbia deliberately made an unconstitutional and illegal decision to cancel the spatial plan for Jadar in order to create space for itself to reactivate the Jadar project," said Kokanović.
Savo Manojlović from the Go - Change Movement announced earlier yesterday on IX that the Constitutional Court made this decision synchronized and express in coordination with the political authorities and Rio Tinto.
Democratic Party MP Srđan Milivojević characterized the court's decision as "openly poking a finger in the people's eye" and provoking civil discontent that "will eventually escalate into anger."
Milivojević told the portal "Danas" that the government is "unnecessarily testing the patience of citizens" regarding the "harmful and disastrous" project "Jadar" near the river of the same name, not far from Loznica.
The Freedom and Justice Party (SSP) called on the President of the Serbian Parliament, Ana Brnabić, to urgently schedule a parliamentary session to discuss lithium mining and the Jadar project, which the government "is pushing madly, and for which there is a series of evidence that it will endanger people's health."
The announcement adds that if Brnabić does not do that, the MPs of that party will talk about lithium at the first next session, whenever it is scheduled, regardless of what will formally be on the agenda.
Yesterday, a gathering of environmental associations, activists and citizens was held in front of the Constitutional Court. They called for a halt to lithium research, saying it was bad for the environment.
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