16
Dec
2021
Watch
Forced labour in the Linglong factory and environmental protests in Serbia
Mr President, it is nothing new that Serbia is a captured state with a very weak reform track record. The Serbian regime has widely opened its doors to Chinese investment, but has no respect whatsoever for labour and environmental rights and, above all, human dignity. What is, however, new is the way Vietnamese workers are treated in Serbia, while working on the Linglong tyre factory construction site. This is what you call modern slavery: no water, food and heating. Is this the picture Europe wants to send as a global leader in fighting for human and labour rights? Other, but related, stories are the ongoing environmental protests. Why do both the Serbian Government and Rio Tinto keep secrecy around the plan of what to do with lithium mining in Loznica? Citizens are rightly worried. So let me be clear. The environmental protests in Serbia are not just about the environment, nor about laws on the referendum. The protests are equally as much about the widespread corruption, inaction of state institutions, lack of transparency and any progress on Serbia’s European path. It is, therefore, high time for us in the EU to react. We risk our credibility by allowing the practice of slave labour and environmental barbarism to take root in the middle of Europe in an EU candidate country. We risk the democratic transformation of Serbia. Instead of opening the cluster, we have to support democratic pro-European voices in the country and show them that the EU is not ready to compromise on our standards.