The Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group and the Centre Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) are organizing the joint policy discussion "Will the rush for lithium crush EU standards? The case of the Western Balkans" in Brussels on December 4th from 11:30 to 13:00 (CET).(Location:CEPS Conference RoomPlace du Congrès 1, Brussels, Belgium).

The event hosted by Steven Blockmans (Associate Senior Research Fellow) will bring together Florian Bieber (BiEPAG Coordinator and Professor for Southeast European History and Politics at the University of Graz and Work Package leader in the REUNIR project), Jovana Marovic (Member of BiEPAG and former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of European Affairs of the Government of Montenegro), Srdjan Majstorovic (Member of BiEPAG and Chairman of the Governing Board of the European Policy Centre – CEP, Belgrade), Vedran Dzihic (Member of BiEPAG and Senior Researcher at OIIP – the Austrian Institute for International Affairs) and Aleksandra Tomanic (Execitive Director, European Fund for the Balkans) in discussing the EU - Serbia lithium deal in relation to the EU enlargement policy, rule of law and environmental standards.

With increasing global demand for critical raw materials and rare earths, the EU and its industry are scrambling to tap into the huge reservoir that is the Western Balkans. While the domestic authorities are unquestionably in favour of selling lucrative concessions, citizens are largely against mining projects due to their environmental harm. There are also concerns that the lithium rush will further undermine the fragile democracies of states at different stages of the EU integration process.

These prospects raise several questions: is mining the best economic and development model for the future prosperity of the Western Balkan countries? Do these projects comply with the rule of law and environmental and health standards? What consequences do such projects have on the countries’ pre-accession processes and on the EU enlargement policy overall?

Register at the following link.