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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“Fight tax havens, start with the European Investment Bank”, argues new report
Press release | 21 April, 2015Counter Balance & Re:Common press release The European Investment Bank (EIB) was the first Development Financial Institution (DFI) to adopt a tax haven policy in 2009. However, more than five years on EIB money still runs via tax havens. A new report by Counter Balance and Re:Common* ‘Towards a Responsible Taxation Policy for the EIB’ which is launched today calls on the EU’s public bank to grasp the political momentum at EU level to prevent any public money from flowing through tax havens. Country by country reporting, identification of beneficial ownership and a workable list of non-compliant jurisdictions would be key ingredients of a real “Responsible Taxation Policy”.
Read moreParliament presses for more scrutiny of EU Investment Plan but guts green prospects
Press release | 20 April, 2015BRUSSELS – MEPs ditch ring fencing for energy savings but demand more democratic oversight over the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) that has been setup to implement Commission President Juncker’s economic recovery plan.
Read moreLetter to European Commission: Request for information on EIB’s involvement in the Transadriatic Pipeline (TAP)
Publication | 9 April, 2015Given the size of the Southern Gas Corridor project it is important that its effects on the environment and especially nearby Natura 2000 sites are duely accessed and that the necessary time to conduct public consultation both in the EU-28 countries and outside of the EU-28 as indicated to the Commission during various meetings related to the second list of PCIs preparation.
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