The European Commission is steadfast in its intention to pursue a strategic partnership on raw materials with Serbia despite concerns over president Aleksandar Vučić’s claims that western powers lie behind widespread protests against a planned lithium mine, a spokesperson for the EU executive said today.

Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič and German Chancellor Olaf Schulz signed a memorandum of understanding in Belgrade last month, just days after Belgrade gave the green light for Anglo-Australian mining corporation Rio Tinto to resume a lithium mining development in the west of the country.

The EU executive said today that it remains “fully committed” to the partnership – the latest in over a dozen Brussels has signed to reduce dependence on China for access to the critical raw materials essential for electric car batteries and Europe’s ongoing energy transition.

“I don’t think we can quantify the importance of the memorandum of understanding with Serbia,” the Commission’s spokesperson on trade Johanna Bernsel told reporters today after president Ursula von der Leyen said securing access to cheap raw materials would be a key goal of the Clean Industrial Deal, the flagship policy agenda for her second mandate.

“What I can say is that we remain fully committed both to the partnership as such and to the environmental standards, to the fact that the environmental standards have to be compatible with EU law,” Bernsel said.

But such rhetoric, which EU leaders have been using since the deal was struck on 18 July, has cut little ice with opponents of Rio Tinto’s plans to open Europe’s largest lithium mine in the Jadar valley 100 kilometres west of the Serbian capital.

Widespread protests by environmentalists and opponents who fear Serbians will receive little benefit of the project culminated on 10 August when tens of thousands marched in the capital, and smaller groups later blocked railway lines into the capital.

There were reports of dozens of arrests, with protest organisers complaining of what they saw as coordinated police action and surveillance – while President Vučić railed against unnamed western powers he said were waging a “hybrid war” against his government.

Vučić said Russian intelligence services had warned him that unspecified governments were looking to foment “mass unrest and a coup” to unseat him from power – echoing assertions the Serbian president made back in February during a television appearance.

The European Commission dismissed such claims. “The European Union absolutely rejects any allegations that it would be involved in any kind of illegal or illegitimate activities linked to foreign interference,” foreign affairs spokesperson Peter Stano said.

EU leaders are keenly watching developments in Serbia, historically an ally of Russia which in May hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with Vučić having said he expects a visit later this month from French president Emmanuel Macron whom he met on the sidelines of a summit in the UK in July.

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Macron said of the meeting that he had expressed his “full support” for Serbia’s integration into the EU, while stressing the importance of normalising relations between Belgrade and the majority ethnic Albanian enclave of Kosovo – whose independence Belgrade has yet to recognise and whose government is currently facing EU criticism over plans to open a bridge in the divided city of Mitrovica.

The French foreign ministry did not respond to repeated requests for confirmation that this visit may have been scheduled for next week. Similarly, the European Commission would not confirm whether president von der Leyen is planning her own visit to Belgrade in the coming weeks.