EBRD transition role in the spotlight again
May 14, 2014
New analysis from CEE Bankwatch Network of how the EBRD conducts its financing and economic advisory activities finds serious deficiencies in the bank’s overall ‘market-oriented’ approach and catalogues a range of startling EBRD interventions in central and eastern Europe (CEE) and further afield that should prompt deeper examination of the bank’s promotional mantra “We invest in changing lives”.
How long till the next protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
May 14, 2014
Back in early February this year, workers at several privatised companies started protesting in Tuzla. The workers expressed outrage at how factory owners were not paying social security contributions, thus making their employees no longer eligible for health care, social security or pensions.
Tapping central and eastern Europe’s green potential 25 years on
May 14, 2014
Environmental writer Roger Manser explains how the warnings of his 1993 book were ignored, and why ambitious green financing action is still a big need in central and eastern Europe.
Stuck in the market? 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall: what now for the EBRD?
May 14, 2014
Harsh, embedded economic realities such as widespread, high unemployment across central and eastern Europe, as well as the discernible trend of democratic retrenchment in several EBRD recipient countries, are resulting in very mixed feelings about the transition process in this year of important anniversaries. This new analysis of how the EBRD conducts its financing and economic advisory activities finds serious deficiencies in the bank’s overall ‘market-oriented’ approach and catalogues a range of startling EBRD interventions.
Is Egypt just stuck in transition or heading away from democracy? Considerations for the EBRD
January 10, 2014
Six months after the Egyptian army deposed Egypt’s first freely elected president, the weak democratic signals by the authorities are overshadowed by widespread repression. How can the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development possibly help under these circumstances? Or put differently: Will the limited benefits to the country’s private sector from EBRD engagement really be enough to outweigh the harm done by the bank’s support for an undemocratic regime?
Another case of alleged corruption in a CEE energy company
September 17, 2012
Alleged corruption at Poland’s second biggest state-owned energy company ENEA S.A. may compromise yet another project financed by European public banks.
The EBRD should listen (better) to civil society in Arab Spring countries
May 22, 2012
In preparation to its extended lending to Arab Spring countries, the EBRD is conducting consultations with civil society. Yet the bank doesn’t seem to make an appropriate effort.
