The Jadar project was in November 2025 placed on “care and maintenance,” continuing the state of persistent threat against local communities and Nature in the valley of river Jadar. For many years now, the project has been met with staunch opposition at the local, national and international level. The project had long been opposed mainly due to lackluster communication about its impacts, and the overtly aggressive mode of Rio Tinto’s approach to permitting and parcel acquisition. This has since grown into a deep-seated distrust towards the project and the company.
The government’s Decree which “cancelled” the project in January 2022, was, clearly for political reasons, annulled by the Constitutional Court in July 2024. This closely “coincided” with the signing of the raw materials agreement with the EU Commission, leading to a new wave of protests. The government, led by the President Vučić, in majority since 2012, has openly supported the project, and hailed its classification as EU’s “strategic project” in 2025, a decision which has been protested and challenged by NGOs.
While outwardly projecting an aura of stability, Serbia’s government bodies have increasingly persecuted and attacked human rights and environmental defenders, or tolerated attacks by militia groups, a dynamic already observed in 2021 protests against Jadar project, recently escalating with violent attempts to suppress peaceful anti-corruption protests raging taking place across the country since late 2024. The outspoken welcoming of the company by the government, and Rio Tinto’s acceptance of such treatment, marked by several closed meetings between high officials and company representatives and the formation of a dedicated working group, changed somewhat since the reinstatement of the project. High government officials and the president’s support has been more veiled, for example, publicly demanding Rio Tinto fulfill legal obligations (which they should have done anyway!). Notwithstanding, Rio Tinto has not taken any measures to distance themselves from the ruling party’s human rights violations. This relationship is deeply troubling as we witness the government’s increasingly violent and non-democratic behaviour and a clear slide towards autocracy.
The scope and content of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), largely criticised and appealed by nongovernmental organisations, was nonetheless decided upon by the relevant ministry in November 2024. However, since then, the EIA process has not taken any further steps, adding to the already noted and heavily criticised pathway of the project through the regulatory system of Serbia. On the other hand, the scientific community in Serbia has actively continued to analyse the project’s possible socio-environmental consequences, in an effort to inform the public with independent information about the project’s and its flaws. A complaint against the project, led by Earth Thrive, has been running at the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats since 2021. The project is deemed to potentially impact more than 68 wildlife species protected by the Convention, and disturb their living habitats and ecological connectivity.
Since we first challenged Rio Tinto at their AGM in 2020, as well as local communities and other groups raising their questions across other fora, the company has invested their time and resources in deflection and “dialogue,” and has not been able to provide any convincing answers.
We shall say it once again. The Nature-, food- and water-rich, thriving bioregion of Jadar is a living community with inherent rights to life and health, not a mining site!