Prague, Oct 16 (CTK) – The Czech Chamber of Deputies asked the cabinet on Monday to annul the memorandum on lithium that Industry Minister Karel Havlicek (Social Democrats, CSSD) signed with the Australian mining firm European Metal Holdings (EMH) shortly before the October 20-21 general election.
In a resolution passed after a nine-hour debate, the lawmakers also stated that in the Czech Republic, lithium should be extracted by a state company.
The resolution is not binding on the outgoing cabinet, because the lower house is not empowered to assign tasks to the cabinet.
The lawmakers supported two of four proposals submitted by parties and made them part of the final resolution.
They asked the government to declared the memorandum annulled for its evidently unclear objective.
In addition, the opposition Communists (KSCM) pushed through an article saying that the memorandum is not binding and cannot have any influence on possible arbitrations based on investments protection agreements.
The minor opposition Freedom and Democracy (SPD) movement pushed through an article saying that lithium should be extracted by a state-owned company and yields should go to the sate budget.
“When it comes to further processing of lithium, it is necessary to support projects securing its processing in the Czech Republic and by business entities seated in the Czech Republic,” the resolution says.
The preceding debate saw a clash over the lithium memorandum between lawmakers and ministers from the two strongest government parties, the CSSD and ANO.
The CSSD said the recent dispute over lithium has been provoked by ANO, together with the KSCM, with the aim to divert attention from ANO leader Andrej Babis’s affairs, while Babis criticised what he called the CSSD’s opaque lithium deal.
The Chamber of Deputies held an extraordinary meeting to discuss a memorandum on possible lithium mining in Cinovec, north Bohemia, which Havlicek signed with EMH a couple of weeks before the elections.
Havlicek, as well as Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek (both CSSD), said the dispute has been provoked by ANO the KSCM to scandalise the CSSD and cover up suspicious deals of Babis.
Havlicek said the debate has shown how close ANO, the KSCM and the populist minor opposition SPD movement are to each other.
He accused Babis of using methods reminding of the communist secret police StB, with which he is familiar as a former StB agent.
He alluded to ongoing Slovak court proceedings aimed to ascertain whether Babis was an StB agent, which he denies.
Babis previously called the lithium memorandum a theft committed by the CSSD in broad daylight.
“It is another opaque deal of the CSSD,” Babis said in the debate on Monday, referring to the lithium mining memorandum.
The essential question is why Havlicek had signed a memorandum with a P.O. Box company seated in the British Virgin Islands, Babis continued.
“Lithium should stay in the hands of the Czech state. Havlicek’s step means just the opposite,” he said and called for the memorandum to be annulled.
He said the memorandum is not valid anyway in a situation where the licence for the Cinovec lithium deposit prospecting is held by the Geomet company, of which EMH is the owner.
Babis said he will lodge a criminal complaint unless Havlicek responds his questions.
KSCM chairman Vojtech Filip said lithium in the Czech Republic should be extracted by a state or a public-owned company. He challenged what he called the EMH’s opaque ownership structure and small size.
Pavel Kovacik, head of the KSCM deputies’ group that initiated the session, said the memorandum must be scrapped. He said the government should draft a bill leaving selected raw materials mining and processing exclusively in the state hands.
CSSD acting chairman Milan Chovanec said the Environment Ministry under Richard Brabec (ANO) did not release its intention to grant lithium prospecting licence, which is why no other firms could apply for it.
The ministry breached the law by its inactivity, Chovanec said. “We are ready to lodge a criminal complaint in the days to come,” he added.
The rightist opposition TOP 09 lawmakers said the lithium dispute between the CSSD and ANO amounts to pre-election hysteria and another right-wing party, the Civic Democrats (ODS), called Monday’s session “an unusual pre-election meeting.”
