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The MoU was signed at the Serbian Critical Raw Materials Summit on 19 July 2024 in Belgrade by European Commission Executive Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič and Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović, witnessed by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and ambassadors from Italy, Germany, and the USA. It is non-legally-binding but politically significant as the institutional bridge between Serbia's upstream resource position and the EU's downstream CRM Act pipeline.
Five operative components: 1. Value-chain integration — cooperative development of integrated value chains for sustainable raw materials, batteries, and EVs 2. Research and innovation — joint programmes for sustainable exploration, extraction, processing, and secondary-raw-materials recycling 3. ESG standards — application of high environmental, social, and governance standards across the value chain with community transparency obligations 4. Financial mobilisation — joint use of EIB, EBRD, EU Strategic Investment Plan, Western Balkans Investment Framework, and Global Gateway instruments to fund qualifying projects 5. Skills development — training programmes for high-quality jobs in raw-materials and battery sectors
The MoU's primary strategic anchoring is the Jadar Valley lithium-borate deposit (Rio Tinto Jadar project), which holds approximately 10% of global lithium reserves and a significant share of European borate supply. The Jadar spatial plan was reinstated by the Serbian Constitutional Court in July 2024 (see responds_to), making this MoU the bilateral institutional follow-through within days of that domestic legal clearing event.
The MoU connects Serbia's upstream-mineral position to the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (§8 Strategic Project pipeline) and the EU Battery Regulation 2023/1542 supply-chain due-diligence architecture. Serbia has EU-candidate status (accession negotiations ongoing), providing an additional institutional lever: CRM Act §10 allows third-country strategic projects to be included in the EU's strategic project designation pipeline, meaning Jadar could achieve EU CRM strategic-project status.