Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland trail as EU recovery fund closes, Bankwatch says
IntelliNews | October 12, 2026Hungary, Bulgaria and Poland are trailing the rest of the EU in drawing on the bloc’s post-pandemic recovery fund as it enters its final phase, with Romania, Slovakia and Czechia close behind, environmental watchdog CEE Bankwatch Network said.
Romania prepares to launch 1.1 GW gas-fired turbines next month
Montel News | September 29, 2026Romania’s Mintia gas-fired power plant is set to launch with an initial capacity of about 1.1 GW next month, increasing to 1.7 GW early next year, the country’s energy ministry told Montel on Monday. CEE Bankwatch Network last week criticised Romania’s focus on new gas capacity, arguing that battery storage was developing faster and could provide flexibility to the power system.
Romania’s gas strategy falters as battery capacity surges – NGO
Montel Markets | September 29, 2026Romania’s battery storage capacity has expanded rapidly and is already providing grid flexibility, while the ongoing energy crisis has exposed the country’s failings in focusing on delayed gas projects, NGO CEE Bankwatch Network said on Friday.
Billions for reconstruction: How not to finance projects that harm the environment
ZN.UA / Mirror of the Week | September 24, 2026Ukraine is being rebuilt, without waiting for the end of the war. In the coming years, billions of euros of public investment — funds from the state and local budgets — will be directed to energy, transport, housing, hospitals, and other public investment projects and programs.
Letter: Ukraine chicken baron’s environmental footprint
Financial Times | September 7, 2026The Ukrainian success story of poultry giant MHP is anything but for the communities that live in the shadows of its factories (“War fails to clip wings of Ukraine’s chicken baron”, FT Series Big Chicken, September 4). MHP operates the largest agricultural enterprise in the Vinnytsia region, managing extensive cropland for chicken feed production. Its environmental footprint is massive. For the last five years, locals have monitored water quality near the MHP site, detecting alarming levels of nitrate contamination, especially in groundwater that people rely on for drinking.
Up to a third of EU decarbonisation fund spent on natural gas, report finds
Euractiv | August 4, 2026A big chunk of the EU’s flagship industrial decarbonisation fund was spent on fossil fuels and other climate-unfriendly programmes, according to a report published on Wednesday. In the late 2010s, Brussels created the Modernisation Fund to soften the blow of the carbon price paid by European factory and power plant operators under the ‘Emissions Trading System’ (ETS), which is currently over €80 a tonne of CO2.
Western Balkans coal plants continue to breach pollution limits despite legal deadlines, report says
bne IntelliNews | July 8, 2026Coal-fired power plants across the Western Balkans emitted sulphur dioxide at more than six times legal limits in 2025, with dust pollution reaching its worst level since current emissions rules came into force eight years ago.
How the EU engages communities in the distribution of funds and why Ukraine needs this experience
European Pravda | June 25, 2026According to a study by the CEE Bankwatch Network, in Poland, NGOs participate in the work of the monitoring committee of the Funds for Infrastructure, Climate and Environment program. Read the full article (in Ukrainian) here: https://www.eurointegrat
Investments in reconstruction: how Ukraine can meet EU requirements and make fundraising transparent
Mind | June 25, 2026Ukraine is preparing for a period of great reconstruction. And we are talking not only about the restoration of what was destroyed, but also about public investment projects and programs. In the coming years, significant funds will pass through them, b
Lutsk has renovated 29 trolleybuses with the money of the European Investment Bank, but the infrastructure is being modernized slowly
Lutsk Rayon | February 19, 2026“Despite large-scale financial support from the EIB, urban transport modernization projects are implemented with delays and focus mainly on the purchase of equipment without proper infrastructure development and strategic planning. This reduces the long-term effect for cities,” says Kateryna Melnyk, a specialist in greening investments at Ecoaction and an expert at CEE Bankwatch Network.
