Sustainability of European Structural and Investment Funds: Implementation principles and case studies on projects selection criteria for energy, environment and resource use
Publication | 19 June, 2015European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) represent significant investments in the EU’s physical infrastructure and the development of human potential, helping to increase the continent’s economic, social and territorial cohesion, including the environmental integrity of its natural environment. This briefing gives an overview of the legal background and the guiding principles for applying project selection criteria during the implementation phase of EU funds, illustrated by a number of case studies and examples from different countries.
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After Slovenia’s Sostanj coal power plant debacle, is any bank going to finance Croatia’s Plomin C?
Blog entry | 12 June, 2015Slovenia’s newly built Sostanj 6 is expected to generate losses of around EUR 200 million over the next 3-4 years. Given that Croatia’s Plomin C project shares some of Sostanj 6’s features could Croatia be about to repeat its neighbour’s mistakes?
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Italian mayor stands up against EU priority gas pipeline
Blog entry | 8 June, 2015Local opposition against the Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline (TAP) is growing as an Italian mayor made clear in an open letter to the European Commission and European public banks.
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Will energy efficiency be sidelined in the Energy Union’s implementation?
Blog entry | 8 June, 2015EU energy ministers are meeting in Brussels today to discuss the implementation of the Energy Union. Looking at what has been discussed so far, the strategy may not prioritise energy efficiency enough to help Europe become climate-friendly.
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Transforming development finance? Europe’s multilateral lenders fail on aid transparency
Blog entry | 4 June, 2015The recently published 2015 Aid Transparency Review concludes that the European Union is off track from meeting its aid transparency commitments. Europe’s two multilateral development banks are indicative of the altogether rather disappointing outcome.
Read moreEuropean Fund for Strategic Investments: Legal requirements to ensure additionality and added-value of EFSI operations
Publication | 15 May, 2015The first four projects that the European Investment Bank announced for financing under President Juncker’s EUR 315 billion investment initiative, the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), reveal the structural inconsistencies of both the EFSI legal set-up and the EIB procedures themselves. For the time being there is no genuine guarantee about the additionality of EFSI financing and added-value to EU’s long-term economic development objectives, in particular the multiple dividends of a decarbonised and decentralised energy system with substantial energy savings at its heart.
Read moreParliament warns of risky financing, demands more accountability at Europe’s bank
Press release | 30 April, 2015In its annual resolution on the European Investment Bank, Members of the European Parliament have criticised the bank’s Project Bond Initiative, warning that the risk-sharing instrument bears similarities to those proposed under the Juncker Investment Plan.
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Infographic: If energy security is the question … the Euro-Caspian Mega Pipeline is not the answer
Publication | 29 April, 2015Europe talks of diversifying energy supplies from Russia by building a set of pipelines from the shores of Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea to Italy. But the EU’s dependency on Azerbaijan for fossil energy fuels repression and feeds the authoritarian Aliyev regime. All the while, Europe does not need all that gas.
Read moreEurope’s back is to the future: Bankwatch and Counter Balance statement on the first projects of the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI)
Press release | 23 April, 2015Yesterday the European Investment Bank announced the first four projects to be financed from the EUR 315 billion EFSI. These include EUR 303 million for health care research in Spain, a public-private partnership in the Irish health sector, the expansion of the Dubrovnik airport in Croatia and a nineteenth century Italian steel factory.
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Tax dodging, development and European public banks
Blog entry | 22 April, 2015A new report highlights how the weak taxation policy of the European Investment Bank is undermining its ability to serve public interest in Europe and the Global South at a time when the use of tax haven is exposed as one of the most important barriers to development.
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