Updates on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

NGOs call for investigation into EIB financing for the Mediterranean region

Counter Balance and CEE Bankwatch Network are calling for an investigation into the European Investment Bank’s (EIB) financing in the Southern Mediterranean region in the past, before giving the bank a leading role in distributing European financial support for the region.

Bankwatch comments on EBRD country level transition indicators

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s transition indicators for some time already were rather disconnected from the situation in the EBRD’s countries of operation. Our comments are premised on the point that the ultimate goal of transition is not only a market economy, but an environmentally sustainable and socially just one.

EU public funds for “securing” dirty coal and nuclear energy Ukraine transmission lines background paper

Over the past few years, a series of strategies, agreements and loans have brought the EU and Ukraine into closer cooperation on perpetuating nuclear and carbon-intensive energy infrastructure and generation, with international financial institutions (IFIs) brokering the deals.

Comments to draft EBRD country strategy for Ukraine

Tirana Botanical Garden threatened by ring road

Last week, more than 33 Albanian civil society organizations — including Bankwatch’s Albanian partner organisation EDEN — sent an open letter (pdf) to Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, protesting against the potential destruction of the Botanical Garden in Tirana.

Khimki defender Evgenia Chirikova is a woman of courage, literally now

Evgenia Chirikova, the leading figure of the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest has yesterday received the US Woman of Courage Award to honour her relentless efforts to save the Khimki Forest near Moscow from being transformed into a motorway.

Keep European public banks out of Mediterranean region, say NGOs

This week, EU leaders are meeting to agree on a common response to events in the Mediterranean. A coalition of Western and Eastern European NGOs issues a serious warning that the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development are not the right institutions to financially support the transition in the Middle East and North Africa.

Bankwatch contribution to the public consultation process regarding the external dimension of the EU energy policy

The European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) strategy paper 2007-2013 for the eastern neighbourhood region involves contradictory strategic objectives. The first of these is sustainable development and environmental protection, which underpins all EU legislation and policies. However, the second priority, the need to ensure the diversification and security of energy supplies to the EU, emphasises the need for further extraction and transportation of the Caspian Seas oil and gas resources to Europe, and thus prioritises it over the development of an environmentally friendly energy sector within the region.

Bankwatch position on the review of the European Neighbourhood Policy

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) gives countries outside the EU the perspective and opportunity to move beyond cooperation to a significant degree of integration. But when it comes to the eastern European neighbourhood partner countries, the assumption that political and social rights will flow and develop as an automatic consequence of economic liberalisation, is only that – an assumption.

Civil society letter urging EC president Barroso to halt EU financing for Russian toll roads

A coalition of major Russian NGOs is urging President Barrosso to make sure that EU financing institutions halt their participation in toll motorway projects in Russia until there are serious improvements in the human rights and public participation situation associated with these projects.