A clash is raging between nature and finance. On the one hand, the EU is striving to improve the deteriorating state of nature across Europe, with initiatives like the Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the European Green Deal. On the other, massive amounts of public money continue to flow to infrastructure projects with devastating impacts on the natural world. Our work where finance meets the natural world advocates for adequate protection and restoration projects to ensure a green future for all.
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Rivers and communities
The countries of the Energy Community Treaty have diverse energy mixes, but hydropower has traditionally played a strong role in many of them. Albania is almost completely reliant on dams for its domestic electricity generation, followed by Georgia with an average of 80 per cent of electricity generated by hydropower and Montenegro with an average of 55 per cent.
EU funds and biodiversity
In May 2020, EU leaders committed to an ambitious Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, outlining the clear need to act on biodiversity loss and address the failing health of nature.
Discussions are now underway to agree on a new EU budget which will run from 2027 to 2034. This represents a golden opportunity to improve biodiversity spending to achieve the objectives of the biodiversity strategy in full.
As well as addressing the biodiversity crisis, strategically supporting nature through EU funds is also one of the most effective ways to tackle climate change, while providing jobs and improved health at the same time.
Yet, with many of the previous strategy’s objectives left unachieved, the pressure now mounts for this decade. Never before has there been so much potential – and urgency – to use EU funds and investments to address the biodiversity crisis.
Related projects
Free-flowing rivers in Central Asia
Central Asian rivers are under threat from hundreds of new hydropower plants. We have created a map of the key rivers in the region that need urgent protection and are calling on the development banks to stop their destruction.
Emerald Network in the Western Balkans
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia are required to establish a sufficient number of Emerald Network sites as signatories to the Bern Convention. However, since 2011, not a single new site has been proposed and many stunning rivers remain unprotected. The #EmeraldForRivers campaign aims to support governments in expanding the Emerald Network.
Turnu Măgurele – Nikopol Hydraulic Structures Assembly on the Danube river, Romania and Bulgaria
The project, if built, would not only devastate critical habitats, leading to the potential extinction of species such as the Danube sturgeons, but also displace local communities, disrupt existing investments, and violate several EU environmental directives.
Latest news
Albania’s Skavica dam can’t get off the ground – time to finally cancel it!
Blog entry | 24 November, 2025The highly damaging hydropower project could hardly have had stronger political support at its inception, with the country’s parliament passing a special law in 2021 to appoint U.S. construction giant Bechtel as the main contractor. But four years later, the project has stagnated, with no environmental permit and no financing.
Read moreRomania’s Parliament paves the way for environmental destruction and ‘foreign agent’ repression
Blog entry | 20 October, 2025Romania stands at a dangerous crossroads. Last week, a law initiated by the senator Daniel Zamfir in 2022 and already then rejected by the Senate, passed by a crushing majority (262–33) in the decisive Deputies Chamber.
Read moreExpanding the Emerald Network: Progress and gaps in the Western Balkans
Blog entry | 9 October, 2025At the 15th meeting of the Bern Convention’s Group of Experts on Protected Areas and Ecological Networks – held from 7 to 8 October 2025 in Bar, Montenegro – participants reviewed progress towards establishing the Emerald Network of protected areas. As part of the programme, the group visited Lake Skadar, one of Montenegro’s key Emerald sites, acknowledging the government’s efforts to safeguard this unique ecosystem.
Read moreRelated publications
The EU Recovery Funds: time to start properly investing in biodiversity and nature conservation
Briefing | 18 March, 2021 | Download PDFThe state of nature is in crisis. A recent European Environmental Agency (EEA) report reveals that 81 per cent of habitats in Europe are in ‘poor condition’, and without swift action this dire situation will only become worse. We need systemic and wide
Nenskra hydropower project: update
Briefing | 29 January, 2021 | Download PDFSince it was first proposed, the Nenskra hydropower project in Georgia has raised significant controversy and concerns among the indigenous Svan communities living near the proposed plant, as well as the general public in Georgia. The accountability mechanisms of the EIB, EBRD and ADB have found numerous violations of the lenders’ environmental and human rights standards, as well as violations of the rights of affected Svan communities.
Can the EIB become the “EU Development Bank”?
Report | 9 November, 2020 | Download PDFThis report analyses the EIB’s track record in the development field and offers a series of detailed recommendations for fundamental reforms at the EIB, so that the Bank can better support partner countries’ development priorities and ultimately become a credible candidate for the “EU Development Bank” seat.
