Europe’s big trash-burning experiment has become a dirty headache
Politico | July 27, 2025“Many of these installation plans would turn out to be obsolete,” says Anelia Stefanova, energy transformation area leader for CEE Bankwatch, since EU countries are expected to meet waste reduction and recycling targets enforced by EU laws.
Why the next EU budget is worrying nature conservationists
Contexte | July 15, 2025As the European Commission prepares to present the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework, biodiversity advocates are pessimistic. They expect nature to be deprioritised in the EU budget and view the disappearance of the Life Fund, the only funding instrument dedicated to the environment, with concern.
ANALYSIS: Race begins to shape rules for EU nature market amid demand dilemma
Nature & Biodiversity Pulse | July 10, 2025The newly launched EU roadmap for nature credits is sparking heated debate over who should design market rules, as observers say strong methodologies and governance frameworks are key to integrity, though demand is unlikely to grow without regulatory measures from the Commission.
The threat to the EU’s LIFE programme in the next budget
EU observer | June 26, 2025The EU’s new priorities are at a major crossroads. The once cutting-edge European Green Deal is now ditched in favour of defence, security and competitiveness. These discussions are taking place against the backdrop of the much-anticipated future EU budget, the financial resource responsible for driving forward the EU’s goals.
COMMENT: Amid shrinking civic space, will the EBRD still uphold its democratic mandate?
bne Intellinews | June 6, 2025As the EBRD expands its operations into new regions, including sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq, will it stay true to its founding mission, and place democracy and civic participation at the heart of its approach?
Zero Waste Europe: Despite EU waste management budget, CEE states struggle to catch up
Packaging Insights | March 17, 2025Report co-authors Fidanka Bacheva-McGrath, strategic area leader at CEE Bankwatch Network, and Evgenia Tasheva from the Za Zemiata Zero Waste team, tell us that: “EU funding has disbursed significant amounts to much-needed investments in CEE since 2021, at least EUR 584 million went to waste incineration, and only EUR 228 million to biomass plants, mainly in the fund’s largest beneficiaries, such as Czechia, Poland, and Romania.”
Czechia wants to phase out coal. But is natural gas the solution?
Euronews | March 10, 2025According to calculations by CEE Bankwatch, the Czech plants near Vrato and Opatovice alone are getting a total of almost 350 million euros in subsidies from the EU Modernisation Fund.
Greening the EU budget: why climate mainstreaming needs reform
Bruegel | February 26, 2025CEE Bankwatch Network (2024) analysed the practical implementation of the DNSH principle in the RRF using six case studies. In some cases, the simplified procedure relied solely on uncritically accepting the countries’ declarations.
Why China is Building a New Road to Russia
The B1M | February 26, 2025“The Khada Valley is a very small valley. It’s located very close to the capital [Tbilisi] and it’s unique in terms of its cultural heritage,” said Manana Kochladze, the human rights and democratisation lead at Bankwatch.
EIB fears ‘reputational disaster’ over revised EU green reporting
Financial Times | January 7, 2025Anna Roggenbuck, policy officer at the campaign group CEE Bankwatch, said the EIB “is not transparent in how it calculates a project’s carbon emissions including all the scope of emissions, and because this is not public, there is no outside scrutiny”.
