Art installation at Berlaymont denounces banking on coal
Press release | 19 October, 2011Brussels – With an art installation that symbolizes EU citizens locked in a polluted environment, the Slovenian artist Marko Kumer Murč and Slovene environmentalists from Focus protest against European public and private banks pouring hundreds of millions of euros into a new lignite plant in their country, at Sostanj. Many Slovenians oppose this project and the Slovenian parliament has just refused to support a state guarantee for the banks’ loans. The action is supported by the international NGOs Banktrack and CEE Bankwatch Network, which are campaigning against the project.
Read moreDid the glimmer of gold blind the EBRD?
Blog entry | 11 October, 2011The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has become a stakeholder in a company that is involved in gold mining in a UNESCO World Heritage site in Russia. Not only does this violate its own Environmental and Social Policy, but it also tells me a lot about the bank’s assessment of partner companies.
Read moreManagers of EBRD-funded Kolubara mines in Serbia arrested for embezzlement
Press release | 4 October, 2011Belgrade -16 current and former members of the management of Serbian state-owned energy company Elektroprivreda Srbija (EPS) were arrested today and yesterday across the country over allegations of embezzlement of company funds. Some of these are people that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has entrusted this summer with managing an 80 million Euros loan for the development of the Kolubara lignite fields near Belgrade.
Read morePotocnik says green economy, European public banks say black coal
Blog entry | 3 October, 2011The European Union’s internal and external ambitions for green economies are being countered by the activities of European international financial institutions. EU Commissioner for the Environment Potocnik can see that also in his home country Slovenia.
Read moreGreenwashing nuclear expansion in Ukraine, with EU support
Blog entry | 13 September, 2011Upgrades of hydro power plants in Ukraine are a prime example for greenwashing nuclear expansion with renewable energy. Alena Miskun from Bankwatch member group National Environmental Centre of Ukraine gives details on the thickening plot that European public banks are involved in.
Read moreIn times of crisis – Poland’s take on the Emperor’s New Clothes
Blog entry | 9 September, 2011Poland has made a worrying proposal on public private partnerships that could risk the future stability of European economies by turning a blind eye to future public debt. But the EU would do well to take the British example as an eye opener.
Read moreContemplating secure and insecure energy supply
Blog entry | 7 September, 2011The EU external energy policy Communication published today by the European Commission continues the decade-long approach of the EU to ensure the unhindered flow of fossil fuel energy supplies to Europe without a real recognition of the problems this drive creates both inside and outside of the EU.
Read moreChercher la femme: gender equality sidelined in international finance
Blog entry | 10 August, 2011Manana Kochladze, Bankwatch’s regional coordinator for the Caucasus and co-author of our new civil society guide Gender and international financial institutions talks about the impacts on women’s lives when big money comes to help “develop” their countries.
Read moreBypassing responsibility
Blog entry | 8 August, 2011The complaints office at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has agreed to investigate a complaint from Bankwatch that a railway project in Georgia has not been properly assessed. Georgian Bankwatcher Dato Chipashvili thinks the case should be a lesson for the EBRD to make sure that from the start local people have their say in how projects are done.
Read moreEBRD Board of Directors must face responsibility for long-term partner EPS’ wrongdoings
Press release | 25 July, 2011Belgrade – Today, over 70 protesters from the Vreoci community is gathering in front of the Belgrade EBRD offices to protest abusive practices by state-owned Elektroprivreda Srbija (EPS), in London, the bank’s Board of Directors is congratulating itself for another profitable deal with the energy company. The EBRD cannot continue to brush off responsibility for corruption acts and human rights abuses committed by their long-term business partner.
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