The President of the Serbian Assembly, Ana Brnabic, commented on the “economic analysis” of the “Jadar” project, which she stated contains falsehoods.

Brnabic detailed that the analysis was conducted by Z. Drakulic, B. Mijatovic, D. Popovic, D. Soskic, and also “unsigned” by Boza Djelic.

She outlined three key messages: the first is the continuation of fake news, explaining that no subsidies were approved for the Slovak company InoBat, nor did the mentioned company even apply for them.

“Secondly, by the type of deduction ‘if this, or if that, then we won’t even need it,’ the authors revealed what the entire EU does not know – Europe will not even need lithium. And thirdly, the authors highlighted their candidacy for the Nobel in economics – an analysis of the economic justification of a project occupying 390 hectares in relation to the entire population of a country or ‘let’s go back to basics, it makes more sense than this,'” Brnabic wrote.

Brnabic elaborated that first, this “piece of work, as well as the proposed law on the prohibition of lithium,” contains obvious and easily verifiable falsehoods, or plain lies.

“For example, on page six it states: The Government of the Republic of Serbia decided in September 2023 to approve record subsidies amounting to 419 million euros to the little-known Slovak company InoBat even though it does not have a single day of experience in mass production of electric batteries. That is a lie. The Government of Serbia signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with InoBat. It did not approve subsidies, nor has InoBat applied for subsidies to date,” she said.

Brnabic explained that on page nine, the authors state: “If Chinese cars, which are currently twice as cheap, win the race with the EU, or if the EU and China agree on a market share of electric cars, which is more realistic, the Jadar Project would become unnecessary,” she said it seems more authors of the text know about the EU’s sustainability strategy, independence in the field of strategic raw materials, and competitiveness, than Ursula von der Leyen, Olaf Scholz, and Emmanuel Macron together.

“Why would they open their own lithium mines if, according to this ‘analysis,’ they will be unnecessary? Not to mention the ‘argument’ – if this were to happen, or if that were to happen, this project would be unnecessary. Strong argument,” she stated.

Third, if one looks at the assumptions about how much the Serbian state would invest in infrastructure for this project, it seems as if in that part of the country no one lives.

“Well, all the roads we plan, the railway, the gas pipeline, the improvement of the transmission power network, and everything else, serves only and exclusively the mine. This is the opposition’s thesis that we are building a fast road from Sabac to Loznica because of Rio Tinto, and not because of the people in Loznica and the Loznica region. Supposedly, we also built the highway to Sabac because of Rio Tinto, and not because of the people?” she said.

She pointed out that the most cited conclusion of the “analysis” is that, although the project will employ more than 3,000 people, if everything in the “analysis” is correct, which is far from it, the revenue for Serbia would be 17.4 million euros per year, or 2.6 euros per capita annually.

“Let’s now see – Why would someone calculate the income from a project that occupies 390 ha in relation to the total number of inhabitants in Serbia. Not even for projects that occupy 20,000 ha or 60,000 ha is income divided by the number of inhabitants to see if they are profitable, not to mention a project that occupies 390 ha! However, if we were to consider that the income is indeed 17.4 million euros annually for Serbia, given that the total project occupies an area of 390 ha, that would mean an income of almost 45,000 euros annually per hectare. And more, since the mine is underground, agricultural activity can continue,” explained the President of the Assembly.

If such income per hectare existed in agriculture, where the annual income per hectare for arable crops is on average about 1,000-1,500 euros, and for fruit growing on average about 15,000 euros, up to a maximum of 20,000 euros, or for any investment in the country, that would certainly mean a much richer Serbia.

“That is certainly the strongest impression of the ‘analysis’: the calculation of income per capita of the entire Serbian population from a project that occupies an area of 390 hectares. 0.03 percent of our country’s agricultural land. Who came up with that, deserves a Nobel right away!” she added.