Happy birthday, Khadija!
Blog entry | 24 May, 2016A graffiti in Warsaw marks the upcoming birthday of imprisoned Azeri journalist Khadija Ismayilova.
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Time for Europe to stop supporting Ukraine’s risky nuclear power sector
Blog entry | 18 May, 2016Three decades after Chernobyl, nuclear power remains a mainstay of Ukrainian energy supply. Despite persistent safety problems, the Ukrainian government has approved lifetime extensions for four of its 15 nuclear units since 2010, and two more could be greenlighted later this year. What is more, Ukraine’s nuclear sector survives in part thanks to European support. The EU needs to stop supporting Kiev’s risky nuclear energy programme.
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No security for Europe from the Southern Gas Corridor
Blog entry | 16 May, 2016With an ownership structure heavily influenced by Azerbaijan, the European Commission’s flagship energy project may end up being a costly piece of infrastructure that does not increase Europe’s energy security but offers a tool for political leverage to the authoritarian Aliyev regime.
Read moreOhrid – Peshtani expressway project, Macedonia
Publication | 11 May, 2016The Ohrid-Peshtani expressway project – financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development via a EUR 160 million loan for the National Roads Programme – involves the construction of a new section on the A3 express to the Albanian border. The new 12.5 kilometre section is planned to pass through the Galicica national park – a rare and important natural site with abundant biodiversity, that was listed as an emerald site (a future Natura 2000 site) and was designated in 2014 part of UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
Read moreThe problems with industrial chicken producer MHP’s expansion in Ukraine
Publication | 11 May, 2016MHP is at the centre of concern for local communities and civil society organisations in Ukraine, because of the way the company engages stakeholders, acquires land, and impacts the environment, water and the local economic development. Since 2010 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved three loans for MHP, totalling USD 205 million. Whether or not the company is in compliance with Ukrainian law, local people think they are not adequately protected and do not have an equal voice against a large corporation if it decides to begin construction.
Read moreGeorgia swept by protests against EBRD-backed hydropower
Publication | 11 May, 2016Protests have in recent weeks broken out across rural Georgia after construction resumed on several large hydropower projects financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Demonstrators have complained that the projects were repeatedly decided behind closed doors, and that poor assessments of the social and environmental consequences mean their livelihoods are under threat.
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Update on resettlements at Kolubara mine and other EPS operations
Publication | 11 May, 2016In October 2015 the independent Project Complaint Mechanism (PCM) of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development found that the bank breached its environmental and social policy with regards to safeguarding the rights of communities impacted by mining operations of the Serbian state energy company EPS.
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For European public finance, where will all roads lead from Paris?
Blog entry | 22 April, 2016Signing the Paris Agreement is an important step in Europe’s contribution to the global effort to tackle the climate crisis. But funding this commitment necessarily passes through the public coffers. To kick-start the much-needed energy transition– by swiftly cutting emissions to reach the global carbon neutrality the Paris Agreement prescribes for the second half of this century –a change of paradigm in public investments in energy infrastructure is needed.
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Europe’s Keystone XL: Planned gas pipeline is reckless
Blog entry | 15 April, 2016The Southern Gas Corridor risks locking in higher fossil fuel dependence and wasting colossal amounts of public money.
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Aid Transparency Index: improvements for Europe’s multilateral development banks but still a long way to go
Blog entry | 13 April, 2016As the 2016 Aid Transparency Review shows some improvement for the two main European lenders, they are still far from reaching satisfying transparency standards.
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