Bankwatch co-production on Kyrgyz gold mine wins at DOK Leipzig while EBRD sights financing for company featured in the film
Blog entry | 26 October, 2010During last weeks internationally-renowned 53rd Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, DOK Leipzig, Bankwatch’s most recent co-production about the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)-financed Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan All that Glitters collected two awards: the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk award for an excellent Eastern European documentary film and the Healthy Workplaces Film Award for the best documentary film about the subject of work.
Read moreRotten perceptions, grim reality Turkmenistan off the agenda in European Parliament, Nabucco still nowhere near fit for purpose
Blog entry | 26 October, 2010Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, launched today, confirms Turkmenistan’s position as one of the world’s least democratic regimes. Promoters of the Nabucco gas pipeline project have opted to adopt a surprisingly tolerant approach to Turkmenistan’s endemic failings.
Read moreKhimki Forest activist arrested for holding banner during picket action
Blog entry | 13 September, 2010Russian activist Yaroslav Nikitenko was arrested by police on Saturday during a legally permitted picket action in the town of Khimki near Moscow. The action was part of the campaign to change the route of the planned Moscow-St Petersburg motorway so that it avoids the Khimki Forest.
Read moreNo public money for Nabucco – mega gas project a drain on clean energy, human rights and the environment, says Bankwatch
Press release | 6 September, 2010Budapest, Hungary — Reacting to today’s announcement by the Nabucco Consortium that international public banks are now officially commencing their appraisal of the EUR 7.9 billion (estimated) Nabucco gas pipeline project, watchdog group CEE Bankwatch Network called on the international financiers to reject what would be record European public finance for the project and instead to focus on the financing of clean energy in central and eastern Europe, particularly climate-friendly, job-boosting energy efficiency.
Read moreCivil society groups welcome cancellation of Slovak D1 motorway PPP
Press release | 3 September, 2010Friends of the Earth CEPA (Slovakia) and CEE Bankwatch Network applaud today’s cancellation [1] of the 9 billion euros public-private partnership (PPP) for the first phase of the D1 motorway in Slovakia and urged the new government to change the project’s routing to avoid damaging the Mala Fatra and Velka Fatra National Parks.
Read moreIn Moscow, thousands protest destruction of Khimki Forest
Blog entry | 23 August, 2010In spite of heavy policing, several thousand people yesterday rallied at a concert in Pushkin Square to voice opposition to the destruction of the Khimki Forest to make way for the EUR 1.5 billion first section of the Moscow – St. Petersburg motorway, a project that may receive financial blessings from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank.
Read moreKhimki Forest movement leader violently detained in Moscow
Press release | 4 August, 2010Yevgenia Chirikova, the leader of the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest, has today been forcibly detained by police in Moscow immediately after a press conference on the persecution of activists opposing the construction of a motorway through the Khimki Forest just outside Moscow. [1] At the time of writing she has been released after several hours of interrogation, but urged to come to Khimki’s police station tomorrow for another round of questioning.
Read moreGroups blast veiled decision-making at European Commission as mining industry revels in rejection of crucial Parliamentary resolution
Press release | 7 July, 2010Environmental organisations have today criticised Commissioner Janez Potocnik for heeding mining industry lobbyists over a democratically elected European Parliament, in failing to open public discussions and rejecting a resolution to ban the use of cyanide in mining processes throughout the European Union.
Read moreSounding the potential of a European budget “for the people and the climate”
Blog entry | 29 June, 2010After six months of preparations and more than 50 interviews with decision makers and experts, Bankwatch has met with representatives from the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to discuss how the next EU budget for the 2014-2020 period can effectively support a low-carbon economy with benefits for people and nature.
Read moreChelopech gold mine plans frozen, campaigners call for cyanide leaching to be binned
Press release | 26 January, 2010An announcement from Dundee Precious Metals that it is freezing plans on its investment at the Chelopech gold and copper mine in central Bulgaria because of ongoing legal challenges has been welcomed by the Cyanide-free Bulgaria coalition.
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