The secret life of export credit agencies
August 1, 2019 | Read more
When respectable, risk-averse development banks turn away from a project, oftentimes export credit agencies (ECAs) are the ones to step in. These government-backed institutions manage hundreds of billions of dollars annually, investing mostly in large infrastructure projects in politically-volatile countries, while avoiding the same scrutiny as other public financiers.
The preparation of the Skopje Green City needs to be transparent and to include citizens and civil society in a meaningful way from the early stages of planning.
The European Commission’s July 2019 infringements package list [1] prominently features Romania. The country is called out for its industrial installations operating without an environment permit and “a systemic failure to monitor air pollution”.
The Turkish state fund TMSF opened a new round of bidding for the troubled Adularya coal power plant only two weeks after a second unsuccessful attempt to sell the project. The move is unexpected because this third round preempts statements by the Czech Minister of Industry and Trade, which had said it planned a visit to Ankara to understand why the tender failed for the project that has been plagued by legal challenges.
The Serbian Ministry of Environment recently published the environmental assessment for the planned Vinča waste incinerator for public consultation. But the study shows no sign that the new plant would be in line with new EU pollution control standards approved in June.
Today’s European Development Days forum in Brussels with its aspirational motto ‘building a world which leaves no one behind’ is an ironic backdrop to what is happening in the remote parts of Kenya, where a whole community is facing a threat of forced eviction by a project under appraisal of the EU’s own house bank. About a hundred people were demanded to abandon their homes by tomorrow – 20 June.
