Letter to EBRD president Suma Chakrabarti
Publication | 3 April, 2019CEE Bankwatch Network, Arab Watch Coalition and the International Accountability Project call to the EBRD President, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, to ensure a people-centered Access to Information Policy. Communities, individuals, and civil society have the ri
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Comments on the EBRD draft Accountability Policy
Publication | 27 March, 2019The draft Accountability Policy of the EBRD proposes a substantial and welcomed restructuring of the mechanism and improves on many of the issues of independence and predictability that hindered the PCM. However, the draft Policy does not yet rectify a
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Comments on the EBRD draft Access to Information policy
Publication | 27 March, 2019Fulfilling the right of access to information is the beginning and foundation of true development that respects the rights of all people. Access to information goes hand-in-hand with meaningful consultation and stakeholder engagement to ensure that pro
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Comments on the EBRD draft Environmental and Social Policy
Publication | 27 March, 2019We welcome the proposed improvements in the EBRD draft Environmental and Social Policy, including the stronger language on human rights, gender and vulnerable groups, as well as the reintroduction of the referral list for financial intermediary high ri
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New report highlights misuse of banking secrecy rules
Blog entry | 26 March, 2019BankTrack’s study finds that client confidentiality is not an absolute legal requirement in any of the world’s major banking centres. Banks can – and do – include the right to disclose information into their contracts. Will the EIB & EBRD acknowledge this in their policies on intermediated lending?
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CSO letter to the EBRD on the revision of the Good Governance policies related to Financial Intermediaries (FIs)
Publication | 13 March, 2019The undersigned CSOs welcome this opportunity to submit comments on the EBRD’s revision of its environmental and Social Policy, Access to Information Policy and Project Accountability Policy relating to financial intermediary lending. As it was documen
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Milestone bank summit in Belgrade a step towards protecting Balkan rivers, but greater transparency still needed
Press release | 1 March, 2019For immediate release. Belgrade – The ‘Save the Blue Heart of Europe’ campaign [1] gave a cautious welcome to a first-of-its-kind summit between the financial sector and green activists, where a roundtable about the role of banks in the destruction of Balkan rivers by hydropower dams was centre stage.
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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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