The EBRD Country Strategy for Azerbaijan
Publication | 26 February, 2019As the EBRD reviews its Country Strategy for Azerbaijan, Civil society organisations approached the Board of Directors to share their concerns about the situation in the country and asked the Bank to be clear that funding should be linked to the perfor
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Macedonian hydropower complaint highlights EBRD’s enduring opacity
Blog entry | 11 February, 2019After almost a year of struggling to get basic environmental information from the EBRD about the Krapska hydropower project, Bankwatch has submitted an official complaint [1] to the bank’s Secretary General. As we run the same administrative circles over and over again, another precious river valley has been irreversibly damaged.
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Changing lives and doing no harm
Blog entry | 8 February, 2019“We invest in changing lives” is the slogan of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, whose investments in 2018 reached EUR 9.5 billion through 395 projects. Whether the change is for better depends on the bank’s environmental and human rights safeguards.
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International CSOs letter regarding Amulsar mine
Publication | 22 January, 2019The undersigned civil society groups stand in solidarity with the residents of Jermuk, Gndevaz and Kechut, and with the environmental activists and concerned civil society in Armenia and appeal to the Government of Armenia to act on the Amulsar mine pr
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The weight of gold
Blog entry | 16 January, 2019The new gold mine in Krumovgrad boasts environmental performance and social responsibility, yet there are black spots along the path of the Bulgarian gold around the globe.
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New reports add details to investigation of Armenia gold mine
Blog entry | 8 January, 2019If you’re looking for a revolution, sign up for notifications from your embassy. The messages pinging on smartphone screens that night in October began not long after stepping into the evening streets around the Yerevan Cascade, warning of impending demonstrations outside the Armenian parliament. To be sure, the flashing blue and red sirens and thousands of people flooding past were impossible to ignore as well, so the consulates’ SMSs came as little surprise and instead provided more than anything context to the oncoming commotion.
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Biodiversity offsetting and other problems of the ESIA of Amulsar gold project in Armenia
Publication | 8 January, 2019This report is a critical analysis, with regard to the impacts on biodiversity, of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) of the Amulsar Gold Project. Special attention has been paid to the biodiversity offsetting proposal for creation o
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Social impacts of the Amulsar mine in Armenia
Publication | 8 January, 2019The Amulsar mine presents a number of considerable health and social risks to local communities, the tourism potential of the nearby Jermuk spa resort and the surrounding villages’ orchards, pastures and water supplies. The company Lydian Armenia prepa
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Call for the EBRD to condemn retaliation against civil society
Publication | 21 December, 2018The space for civil society is rapidly shrinking across the world. This is especially true in the countries of EBRD operations, where crackdowns on freedom of expression, association, and assembly threaten the very existence of independent civil societ
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Belgrade incinerator plans raise burning questions
Blog entry | 19 December, 2018The planned Belgrade waste incinerator in Serbia, being considered for financing by the EBRD, EIB and IFC, is incompatible with increasing waste prevention and recycling rates and endangers the already precarious livelihoods of the 12,000 people who currently live from waste-picking in the city. The recently published environmental and social impact assessment for the project fails to resolve either of these issues, as well as numerous others.
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