Proposed Lukoil EBRD loan – for whose benefit?
Publication | 22 December, 2014Despite the Russian invasion in Ukraine leading to EU and US sanctions against Moscow and major Russian energy companies, public banks supported by EU countries are gearing up to offer almost a billion dollars in financial support to Russian company Lukoil for gas extraction in Azerbaijan.
Read moreJuncker’s investment offensive risks turning against Europeans
Press release | 18 December, 2014Brussels – Environmental NGOs call on President Juncker, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank to consider for financing from the 315 billion growth package only projects which are sustainable and in line with EU goals and only after proper public consultation with potentially affected communities.
Read moreLetter to the European Commission and the EIB regarding the EFSI investment fund
Publication | 16 December, 2014This letter, sent by a group of NGOs from the Green 10 and Counter Balance coalitions, calls on the Juncker Commission and the European Investment Bank to apply principles of transparency and sustainability for the EUR 315 billion investment package.
Read moreEight things to give the EIB’s forthcoming climate policy meaning, purpose and ambition
Publication | 10 December, 2014With climate protection set to be a high priority for the EU in the next five years and beyond, the EIB needs to streamline climate considerations across its lending to different sectors and in different regions as quickly as possible. Such a policy needs to deliver on multiple objectives, with the combating of climate change and the promotion of sustainability absolutely central to these.
Read moreJuncker’s investment package to be hijacked by countries’ destructive plans
Press release | 8 December, 2014Brussels – A list of projects member states want to see financed from the Juncker investment package has been made public in expectation of tomorrow’s summit where finance ministers will discuss the package. Coal, nuclear and incinerators are among the various countries’ priorities, which fail to add up to the long-term strategic plan to stimulate growth and sustainability in Europe that Juncker promised.
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EU Project Bonds are a worrying indication for the future EU long term investment plans
Blog entry | 4 December, 2014As the pilot phase of the EU Project Bonds Initiative is coming to an end, a roundtable discussion in the European Parliament takes stock of the initiative.
Read moreBankwatch Mail 61
Publication | 2 December, 2014Европейский инвестиционный банк как основа Инициативы проектных облигаций ЕС – ее начальной и, как показывает опыт, проблематичной пилотной фазы. В Bankwatch Mail 61 рассматриваются инфраструктурные проблемы, которые сегодня стоят перед Европой, вопрос приемлемости использования таких механизмов, как европейские проектные облигации, для выхода на финансовые рынки, а также обзор недавно представленного пакета инвестиционных мер Юнкера, в котором в очередной раз ведущая роль в области реанимации европейской экономики отводится ЕИБ.
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Sostanj lignite plant: A mistake not to be repeated
Press release | 2 December, 2014Ljubljana — A new briefing by Slovenian NGO Focus shows how misguided assessments of future viability and corruption led to TES6 lignite unit costing more than double the estimated amount, bringing annual losses of tens of millions of euros, and creating only a fraction of the number of jobs promised.
Read moreBankwatch Mail 61
Publication | 2 December, 2014The European Investment Bank has been at the heart of the EU’s Project Bonds Initiative – its inception and its so far troubled pilot phase. Bankwatch Mail 61 examines the infrastructure challenges facing us in Europe and beyond, questions whether mechanisms such as the European project bonds are an appropriate way to tap into money in financial markets, and provides an overview of the newly launched Juncker investment package, featuring another pivotal role for the EIB in the latest high-level effort to kick-start the European economy.
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Mind the infrastructure gap
Publication | 2 December, 2014A case of outrageous bad fortune, or a portent of things to come? The one thing that can be stated with any certainty about the collapsed Castor project, the underground gas storage plant in Vinaròs, Spain that was selected in 2013 as the lead-out project for the EU’s Project Bond Initiative (PBI), is that the Spanish government has put its citizens on the hook to cover a compensation package of EUR 1.35 billion to ESCAL UGS, the project promoter.
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