Guest post: EBRD justification for supporting coal in Egypt’s cement industry is negligent
Blog entry | 15 May, 2014Colleagues from the Egyptian Centre of Economic and Social Rights criticise the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s too lax approach when examining its activities in Egypt’s cement sector.
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Balkan lynx stage protest at annual meeting of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Blog entry | 15 May, 2014A delegation of 20 lynx from Mavrovo National Park in Macedonia today occupied a corridor in the Polish National Stadium in Warsaw, where the EBRD Annual General Meetings are taking place 14-15 May. Their message: “EBRD, don’t finance the Boskov Most dam, as it will destroy the forest in which we live and eventually kill us.” The 20 delegates from Mavrovo Park constitute almost half of the little over 50 lynxes which still survive in the park today (the Balkan lynx is an endangered species).
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Funny business at EBRD meeting: sustainability champion Garanti fancies coal
Blog entry | 14 May, 2014The Turkish Garanti Bank, one of the winners of the Sustainability Awards of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is among the main coal investors in Turkey.
Read moreBankwatch analysis of EBRD operations in CEE at 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall
Press release | 14 May, 2014Warsaw – As the EBRD celebrates 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the benefits it has brought to its countries of operation in the post-socialist space, a new Bankwatch report criticises the bank for having systematically promoted a „markets above all” approach, which has often put democratic and environmental concerns on the back burner, and occasionally proved straightforwardly detrimental to the region. The Bankwatch analysis is available for download here: https://bankwatch.org/EBRD-stuck-in-market
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Nuclear shadows – transparency failings persist with Ukrainian safety project
Publication | 14 May, 2014Twenty years of limited – if not downright poor – transitional progress has demonstrated the inability of European and global institutions to effectively impact development processes in Ukraine.
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EBRD transition role in the spotlight again
Publication | 14 May, 2014New analysis from CEE Bankwatch Network of how the EBRD conducts its financing and economic advisory activities finds serious deficiencies in the bank’s overall ‘market-oriented’ approach and catalogues a range of startling EBRD interventions in central and eastern Europe (CEE) and further afield that should prompt deeper examination of the bank’s promotional mantra “We invest in changing lives”.
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Heavy on the process – EBRD review of governance policies may disappoint many
Publication | 14 May, 2014The EBRD’s board of directors is expected, on the eve of the bank’s annual meeting in Warsaw, to approve new ‘good governance’ policies that will have significant bearing on the institution’s future activities. The EBRD’s Environmental and Social Policy, its Public Information Policy and the Rules of Procedure for the EBRD Project Complaints Mechanism have been the feature of multi-stakeholder consultations across the EBRD’s regions of operation in 2013 and into 2014.
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Former EBRD president implicated in bank’s controversial fossil fuel loan in Tunisia
Publication | 14 May, 2014What began as research into Serinus Energy EBRD loans that were granted to the company in July 2013 for the exploration and expansion of oil and gas fields in the Chouech Essaida, Ech Chouech, Sabria, Sanrhara and Zinnia concessions in Tunisia, has become a story that reflects both the revolving doors culture that permeates elite circles and how the EBRD is able to provide loans that provide absolutely no additionality.
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IFIs pull out of Turkish coal project – NGO pressure integral
Publication | 14 May, 2014Coal power plants are mushrooming all over Turkey, there’s no doubt about that. With the government’s plan to reach 120,000 MW of installed capacity by 2023, double that of today, a 1350 MW power plant in the already heavily industrialised and polluted peninsula of Aliaga in western Turkey could easily have gone unnoticed.
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Concrete boots already for new EBRD energy policy? Potential support for Egyptian coal projects attracts criticism
Publication | 14 May, 2014In what is shaping up to be another controversial chapter in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s already troubled entry into Egypt in 2012, questions are being asked of the international financial institution as to whether it intends to support coal power financing, specifically to assist Egypt’s cement industry.
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