The Speaker of the National Assembly, Ana Brnabic, said that the visit to Sweden and the Swedish Parliament was very good and that she had a number of successful meetings, with the Speaker of the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag, Andreas Norlen, the members of the Swedish parliamentary committees on environment and agriculture and on European Union affairs, as well as the members of the Swedish parliamentary delegations to the Council of Europe and to the OSCE.
"I also spoke with the head of the parliamentary friendship group between the Riksdag and the Western Balkans, and we discussed very important topics, from Serbia's European integration and requests for additional support from Sweden and the Nordic countries in general, to how to be more in touch and exchange information more quickly and effectively so that we can count on greater support from Sweden," said the National Assembly Speaker.
She said that they also discussed environmental protection and mining, since Sweden is one of the mining countries in Europe and one of the world champions in mining, and which, on the other hand, pays a lot of attention to environmental protection.
"Sweden also has an extremely large and important lithium mining project covering several thousand hectares, which in December last year was granted the status of a project of national importance. I found it very interesting what they answered when I asked them if there was a debate in Sweden about whether lithium should be mined or not. Believe me, they looked at me with astonishment and said that there was no debate about it, that everyone agrees that Sweden needs lithium, that it is the key to their green transition and sustainability for the future," she said.
She added that unlike lithium, there is a debate in Sweden about uranium mining, but that there is not a single voice against lithium mining.
"I hope that we will soon host all these people in our parliament, because I think that we can learn from the Swedes about dialogue and tolerance and how different political parties can work together without agreeing on some things. That is completely fine, but they can at least agree on national priorities and things that are essential for national interests," she stressed.
She also assessed that the members of our parliament could agree on things they have in common and that that would be very good for the future of Serbia.
"As the Speaker of Parliament, I will continue to try, at least to insist on these things, even though at this moment we really seem extremely distant, as if there are walls between us. I am sorry that the Head of the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Sweden, Stefan Janjic, from Zdravko Ponos’ Serbia Centre - SRCE Parliamentary Group, did not want to be in this delegation even though I invited him," said Brnabic.
