Comments and recommendations on the EBRD Draft Mining Strategy
Publication | 23 June, 2012(Download a short version of these comments as pdf.) As it is now, the EBRD foresees growth in the mining sector and sees its involvement as crucial in this process. At the same time the Bank recognizes that mining can cause significant adverse environmental and social impacts, including permanent ones, and that no single mine can be sustainable since it exploits a finite local resource.
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3:1 against Ombla, Croatia must stop gung-ho investment
Blog entry | 20 June, 20123 out of 4 experts gave a negative opinion on the environmental study of the Ombla hydropower plant. Now the Croatian government must heed their warnings and stop the project.
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Between the headlines: EBRD expansion demands policy-driven approach
Blog entry | 14 June, 2012With the European Parliament’s ratification of the expansion of EBRD operations to north Africa the question arises again: Is the bank fit for this purpose? The Parliament’s answer sounds like a resounding ‘maybe’.
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The revolution should not be privatised
Blog entry | 12 June, 2012Pushing for public-private partnerships will not support democratisation in the Arab Spring countries but risks increasing their public debt. Our new website brings together the PPP lessons that Europe should have learned.
Read moreThe EU’s electricity imports from neighbouring countries: at what cost?
Press release | 8 June, 2012Kiev — Despite being the place of one of the most terrifying nuclear accidents in the world, Ukraine is currently working on expanding the lifespan of 13 of its old Soviet-style reactors, with electricity exports to the European Union in mind. In a study published today, CEE Bankwatch Network is revealing how the EU and its financing institutions are promoting electricity imports to the EU which are likely to have highly damaging consequences for the exporting countries.
Read moreA Partnership of unequals – Electricity exports from the eastern neighbourhood and western Balkans
Publication | 7 June, 2012Cooperation in the energy sector is one of the European Union’s key priorities in its relationships with neighbouring states. Although the promotion of energy efficiency, energy savings and the use of renewable energy sources should be the primary areas of cooperation along with “energy security”, the latter receives the lion’s share of attention and in several cases also a disproportionally large amount of financial support. This can have several negative environmental and social implications as this study shows.
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Hydro power plants endanger the Balkan lynx in Macedonia
Blog entry | 5 June, 2012A fact-finding mission to Macedonia has confirmed our concerns that two planned hydro power plants are set to destroy important natural habitats in the Mavrovo National Park.
Read moreLetter to EBRD requesting evaluation of K2R4 safety modernisation before considering new loan to Ukraine’s nuclear energy sector
Publication | 1 June, 2012Due to a number of so far unfulfilled project measures in an EBRD financed safety modernisation project in Ukraine (K2/R4 post start-up safety modernisation programme), Bankwatch has asked the EBRD’s Chief Evaluator for a thorough evaluation before further loans for Ukraine’s nuclear energy company Energoatom are being considered.
Read moreHunger strike begins in protest of cemetery removal at EBRD coal mine in Serbia
Press release | 30 May, 2012Belgrade – An official from the southern Serbian town of Vreoci has begun a hunger strike on Monday to protest against what he considers the unlawful exhumation of a local cemetery to make way for coal extraction at the nearby Kolubara mine. Last year the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development approved a loan of 80 million euros to support the expansion of lignite mining at Kolubara.
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The EBRD should listen (better) to civil society in Arab Spring countries
Blog entry | 22 May, 2012In preparation to its extended lending to Arab Spring countries, the EBRD is conducting consultations with civil society. Yet the bank doesn’t seem to make an appropriate effort.
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