EBRD Draft Public Information Policy – comments
Publication | 31 May, 2011The revised Public Information Policy (PIP) of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) adopts only few of the NGOs’ proposals submitted during the first stage of commenting, therefore missing the opportunity to improve the draft. We insist that the detailed comments submitted in January should be further considered by the EBRD before drafting its final PIP. These comments concentrate on several priority issues, in addition to those submitted in January.
Read moreRecommendations for the EBRD’s Public Information Policy based on comparative analysis of IFC and other disclosure policies
Publication | 30 May, 2011The current draft of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s public information policy lacks several provisions and innovations which should be considered the latest best practice in information disclosure in multilateral development banks.
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Bringing Georgian realities to the EBRD drawing board
Blog entry | 30 May, 2011David Chipashvili from Bankwatch member group Green Alternative in Georgia talks about the opportunities and threats in bringing concerns from the ground to the attention of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Read moreAre we nearly there yet? Dilemmas of transition after 20 years of EBRD’s operations
Publication | 20 May, 2011As the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development celebrates twenty years of market and democracy promotion in central and eastern Europe, Bankwatch evaluates the institution’s activities since its inception and concludes the bank needs to move swiftly and genuinely towards prioritizing social justice and lowering carbon intensity of economies, if it wants to bring real benefits to the region.
Read moreEBRD should change mandate to prioritise people and the environment, says Bankwatch
Press release | 20 May, 2011Astana, Kazakhstan – After twenty years of promoting market economies in central and eastern Europe, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development needs to move swiftly and genuinely towards prioritising social justice and transition to energy efficient, renewable energy based economies if it wants to bring real benefits to the region, says a new policy paper from CEE Bankwatch Network issued on the occasion of the EBRD annual meeting in Astana May 20 (1).
Read moreBankwatch Mail 48
Publication | 19 May, 2011On the occasion of the EBRD’s 20th anniversary, Bankwatch Mail is complemented by a range of personal reflections from people both within and beyond central and eastern Europe, people who have worked directly on issues related to the EBRD, or who have studied the bank’s impacts.
Read moreUkrainian transmission lines – a vehicle for dirty electricity to the EU
Publication | 15 May, 2011The EBRD is and has been involved in a number of high voltage electricity transmission lines in Ukraine that eventually would lay the technical groundwork to export nuclear and coal-based electricity to the EU. In the Ukrainian electricity transmission field, the EBRD should focus its efforts on utilising the massive potential to increase the reliability and efficiency of Ukraine’s energy system through the modernisation of existing grid, especially low-voltage local grid below 110kV where power losses now are two times higher than average in the EU.
Read moreVlora Thermo Power Plant, Albania – where is the electricity?
Publication | 15 May, 2011The oil and gas-fired thermo-power plant in Vlora, Albania – in a tourism-dependent city and only 100 metres from the protected Narta lagoon – was financed by the EBRD, the European Investment Bank and the World Bank. After a slew of problems, including lack of proper public consultation, the plant is not actually working – two years after it was supposed to have been completed – and it is increasingly doubtful whether it will start to produce electricity any time soon.
Read moreArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih – transition without sustainability
Publication | 15 May, 2011After 5 years of project implementation, the EBRD admits: “The investment with ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih (AMKR) … has achieved the objectives related to increased capacity utilisation, corporate restructuring and market expansion. Conversely, it fell short of its energy efficiency objectives; and saw an unsatisfactory environmental performance.”
Read moreNabucco and the Arab Spring
Publication | 15 May, 2011The democratic revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East have not quite spread it to the authoritarian regimes of Central Asia. Nevertheless nervous reactions among leaders in these countries have proven another weakness of the proposed Nabucco pipeline project, in that the stable gas supplies promised by the project under the capacious term “energy security” are much less “secure” than previously expected.
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