Publications

Kosovo has just celebrated the fifth anniversary of independence. In these five years, Kosovo has achieved membership of certain international financial institutions (IFIs): having already joined the IMF and the World Bank, on December 17 last year Kosovo became the 66th member of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Yet what can Kosovo’s citizens expect from EBRD membership?

The public consultation on the EIB’s review of its energy policy is well underway now, with the bank’s intention being to have the new policy in place sometime this summer. While not part of the review process as such, following an official request for information Bankwatch has received comments submitted by the Directorate-General for Environment of the European Commission to the EIB as part of ongoing exchanges between the bank and the Commission.

Kurt Bayer, until recently Austria’s executive director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has for several years maintained an interesting blog covering issues such as the Eurozone crisis and development finance more generally. Following his departure from the EBRD, might we start seeing a few more revealing insights from Mr Bayer about life – and some of its frustrations – at 1 Exchange Square, London?

The key objective of the European Commission's proposal on the Multi-annual Financial Framework was to get an EU budget that is more policy-driven, fit for the challenges of the 21st century and supporting a green transition in order to assist the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy. In contrast the European Council deal mainly focuses on vested national interests and net contributions, failing to agree on a forward looking budget able to tackle European challenges and consistent with EU environmental targets by 2020.

276 organizations from all 27 EU Member States signed this letter to ask European Parliamentarians for a better reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Environmental NGOs emphasise that, with very long lifetimes for transport infrastructure, today’s decisions on EU transport spending will set the path for transport beyond 2050 and into the next century. Yet, in light of the EU budget negotiations, there will not be enough funding for all the projects in the Connecting Europe Facility annex or the TEN-T maps to get off the ground. This briefing therefore focuses on how to make the most of the limited funds available, and to avoid the major cost-overruns and delays that have plagued TEN-T policy to date.