Updates on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Unlocking accountability: Complaint mechanisms at the international financial institutions

This leaflet provides guidance for people affected by the projects and programmes of international financial institutions. It explains in brief how the safeguard policies of the World Bank group, the EBRD and the EIB function and how to address the banks’ complaint mechanisms. The leaflet is also available in: Russian (pdf)

Threat posed by hydro to Mavrovo National Park under the spotlight at Skopje conference

On Thursday in Skopje, over 100 people attended the first public conference [mk] regarding the two planned hydropower plants in the Mavrovo National Park, one of the oldest and most valuable protected areas in the country. A petition to save the park that was launched one day earlier has already gathered over 13 000 signatures.

The EBRD’s newly proposed Environmental and Social Policy – from bad to worse

Bankwatch Mail 58

Содержание Чьи интересы отстаивает Энергетическое сообщество? Договор нуждается в срочном улучшении Договор об Энергетическом сообществе, подписанный при поддержке ЕС в 2005 году и сторонами которого являются страны западной части Балканского полуостро

Recommendation from the European Investment Bank to the European Commission on the subject of a possible EURATOM loan for the Nuclear Safety Upgrade project in Ukraine (censored version)

Commissioned by the European Commission, the European Investment Bank assessed the feasibility of a Euratom loan to Ukraine’s state-nuclear energy operator Energoatom. This censored version of the document was made available on request.

Whose Energy Community? Treaty improvements urgently needed

The EU-backed Energy Community Treaty, signed in 2005 and comprising the western Balkan countries, Ukraine and Moldova, has been widely hailed as encouraging regional co-operation. It also sets a legislative framework for the signatories (also known as the contracting parties) that should contribute, along with the EU accession process, to addressing the environmental and social impacts of the energy sector. Indeed, examples of the Energy Community’s added value are its adoption of renewable energy targets in October 2012, as well as a requirement for power plants to comply with EU emissions limits.

Slovenia’s shoddy Šoštanj 6 busts the myth of cheap lignite power

Bankwatch has been monitoring and campaigning against the ill-conceived EBRD- and EIB-financed Unit 6 at Šoštanj in Slovenia for several years now. Yet the project never ceases to amaze with its myriad flaws and scandals – and the first few months of 2014 have been no exception.

Oil casts long shadow over local people in Albania

Local development and investments in resource extraction rarely go together hand in hand. Bankwatch’s Media coordinator David Hoffman reports back on a recent visit to the EBRD sponsored Patos Marinza oil field in Albania. The case provides valuable lessons for the current revision of the EBRD’s safeguard policies.

Where’s Plan B for Kosovo’s energy sector?

Ideas about the construction of a new lignite power plant in Kosovo have existed since the end of the 1980s, and even the current Kosova e Re proposal – scaled down to 600 MW from the original 2100 MW – has been around since 2009. It is being touted by the Kosovo government, the World Bank, USAID and the European Commission among others as the only realistic option to replace the ageing and heavily polluting Kosovo A power plant.

The good, the bad and the uncertain: the new energy policies of Europe’s public banks

The European NGO coalition Counter Balance has recently published a short overview of the new energy policies now in place at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). Both banks’ new policies were finalised towards the end of 2013 following extensive consultation with stakeholders from the energy sector, civil society and academia.