Money, and the EU’s climate agenda, to burn: EBRD mining strategy on a carbon collision course
Publication | 9 October, 2012With the EBRD due to sign off on its new mining strategy in November this year, 22 MEPs have pointed out in an open letter to European commissioners that given the state of the policy draft the bank risks contradicting the EU Resource Efficiency Roadmap and responsible mining principles. At risk of being compromised too, Bankwatch believes, are the EU’s 2020 strategy and EU commitments on climate change and biodiversity protection.
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Trust us, we’re euphoric – Private equity and a tax haven part of the EBRD’s first post-Arab Spring swoop
Publication | 8 October, 2012For its first loan to ‘Arab Spring’ countries the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has chosen vehicles and partners whose ability to deliver developmental value is highly uncertain.
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How the facts got in the way of a good EBRD Roma headline
Publication | 8 October, 2012This summer’s ‘silly season’ featured a a blog post on the EBRD website replete with the claim that the bank has helped turn Serbia into a “role model for social inclusion of Roma”. This claim immediately rang hollow in light of the ongoing plethora of abuses of Roma rights in Serbia.
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The Oil Road – How a done deal continues to unravel
Publication | 8 October, 2012The Oil Road by James Marriot and Mika Minio–Paluello is a remarkable recounting of their journey along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline from Azerbaijan to the City of London. It is a narrative peppered with a wealth of cultural, social and economic history and kaleidoscopic insight from the Caspian region and beyond.
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Egypt’s turmoil is a distraction from the west’s economic agenda
Publication | 8 October, 2012The storming of the US embassy in Cairo has diverted attention once again from the real issues facing Egypt. It couldn’t have come at a better time for those who want to convince the Egyptian people to accept an International Monetary Fund loan and other western IFI interventions, and thus extend former president Hosni Mubarak’s liberalisation of the economy.
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More questions asked about EBRD and EIB transparency
Publication | 8 October, 2012The European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have been awarded some of the worst transparency scores for international finance institutions in this year’s Aid Transparency Index, published in early October by the campaign group Publish What You Fund.
Read moreOpen letter to Serbian president: Protect our property in the Vreoci cemetery
Publication | 4 October, 2012The letter is asking the Serbian government to protect Vreoci community property in the Vreoci cemetery and especially an orthodox chapel that is property of Vreoci citizens.
Read moreEuropean public banks must improve transparency
Press release | 1 October, 2012Brussels – The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) score low on transparency according to the ‘2012 Aid Transparency Index’ [1] published today by the campaign group ‘Publish What You Fund’.
Read moreCan Ukraine abandon nuclear energy? Yes we can
Publication | 30 September, 2012This briefing examines how Ukraine can reduce its dependency on nuclear energy, without sacrificing its ability to meet demands. The results show that Ukraine could very well satisfy its electricity needs even when it shuts down expired nuclear power plants, does not built new ones, and neither increases the use of coal in thermal power plants.
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Trust us, we’re euphoric – Private equity and a tax haven part of the EBRD’s first post-Arab Spring swoop
Blog entry | 26 September, 2012For its first loan to ‘Arab Spring’ countries the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has chosen vehicles and partners whose ability to deliver developmental value is highly uncertain.
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