Polish shale gas – a watery grave looms, but for who?
Publication | 14 May, 2014Tomasz Zdrojewski explains the risks to Polish water from the massively hyped fossil fuel bonanza.
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Tapping central and eastern Europe’s green potential 25 years on
Publication | 14 May, 2014Environmental writer Roger Manser explains how the warnings of his 1993 book were ignored, and why ambitious green financing action is still a big need in central and eastern Europe.
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Stuck in the market? 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall: what now for the EBRD?
Publication | 14 May, 2014Harsh, embedded economic realities such as widespread, high unemployment across central and eastern Europe, as well as the discernible trend of democratic retrenchment in several EBRD recipient countries, are resulting in very mixed feelings about the transition process in this year of important anniversaries. This new analysis 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.
Read moreBankwatch Mail 59
Publication | 13 May, 2014Coinciding with the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, this issue examines how some of the EBRD’s transition recipes turned out almost 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In addition, controversies with current projects and recent policy revisions provide a rather grim outlook for what further transition will bring for old and new countries of operation of the EBRD.
Read moreThe village of Junkovac near the Kolubara mine – neglected and destroyed
Publication | 9 May, 2014The story of Junkovac in Serbia highlights systemic violations of human rights, neglect and wrong doings in the lignite mining sector that have not changed since the involvement of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development began in 2000. One of most recent cases of violations of human and property rights involves the illegal dumping of overburden from the mines at the Junkovac site that for years has been a threat to the properties and lives of hundreds of people in the nearby village.
Read moreDoes European financing facilitate the implementation of the Espoo convention in nuclear-energy related activities? Experience from Ukraine.
Publication | 9 May, 2014Public finance can play a role in ensuring nuclear safety and the transparency and accountability of government decisions related to nuclear energy by encouraging governments to fully apply Espoo procedures at earlier stages of the programme or plan and to provide more information about loan conditionalities. However, only a limited positive effect has been seen in Ukraine due in part to a lack of transparency by the financial institutions and to the selective application of convention requirements.
Read moreMore for pigs than people: experience with Danosha’s expansion in Ukraine
Publication | 7 May, 2014In 2013 the EBRD approved a loan of EUR 35 million to Danosha, a Ukrainian industrial pig farming company. Categorised as ‘B’ by the bank, the project didn’t require an Environmental Impact Assessment or public participation. Yet experience shows that Danosha’s activities are associated with adverse environmental and social impacts, and the situation has been worsened by the fact that the company does not publish any information about its impacts on the environment, public health and safety at its farms.
Read moreThe hydropower plant Boskov Most, Macedonia
Publication | 6 May, 2014In November 2011 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development approved a EUR 65 million credit to ELEM, a Macedonian state-owned company for the construction and management of the hydro power plant “Boskov Most”. Around 80% of the project falls into the territory of the “Mavrovo” National Park.
Read morePlanned contract for Plomin C coal plant most likely illegal state aid, says legal analysis
Press release | 5 May, 2014Zagreb, 05.05.2014 – A planned long-term power purchase agreement in which Croatian electricity company HEP will commit to buying at least 50% of electricity from the planned Plomin C power plant for 20-30 years will most likely be illegal under EU state aid rules, according to a new legal analysis by Hungary’s Environmental Management and Law Association (EMLA).
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New online toolkit to help tackle the Kings of Coal in southeast Europe and Turkey
Blog entry | 5 May, 2014Coal investments are a dying breed in many countries, but some investors are still ready to try their luck in southeast Europe and Turkey. For campaigners who want to communicate with these actors Bankwatch has developed the user-friendly online toolkit Kings of Coal in three languages.
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