Never mind the protected areas!
Blog entry | 23 November, 2021Hidden behind a financial intermediary, the EIB has supported the destruction of the Mojanska River in Montenegro. Yet local inspectors claim nothing is wrong. Will the EIB now take corrective action?
Read moreMajor setback on transparency at the EIB
Press release | 18 November, 2021Yesterday, the European Investment Bank (EIB) – the financial arm of the EU – approved a new Transparency Policy that will allow the bank to keep hiding information on projects it finances despite their potential impacts on people and the environment.
Read moreThe EIB cannot become a ‘climate leader’ while failing on transparency
Press release | 10 November, 2021The European Investment Bank (EIB) – the financial arm of the EU – is about to approve a new Transparency Policy that will allow the bank to keep hiding information on projects it considers to finance despite their potential impacts on people and the environment.
Read moreNew report: European Investment Bank hydropower failures necessitate tighter rules
Press release | 21 October, 2021The European Investment Bank has financed a series of damaging hydropower projects since 2010 which underline the need to tighten its environmental and social standards, according to a new report published today by CEE Bankwatch Network and EuroNatur.
Read morePublic money vs. pristine rivers
Publication | 21 October, 2021As the EIB revises its Environmental and Social Standards, this report presents eight hydropower schemes in central and eastern Europe either financed or under consideration by the Bank. The projects – some financed directly and others via intermediari
Read moreKenya energy project exposes the dark side of EU development funds
Blog entry | 13 October, 2021A third of the European Investment Bank (EIB) portfolio in 2020 went through financial intermediaries, a channel that has already enabled multiple projects with devastating consequences for nature and communities with virtually zero accountability. The ongoing review of the EIB’s environmental and social standards is a crucial opportunity to ensure transparency and proper scrutiny of all projects supported with European public money.
Read moreEIB misinterprets EU’s development finance needs
Blog entry | 12 October, 2021The European Investment Bank (EIB) has long been seeking to take a more significant role in the EU’s overseas development effort. But it has also been resisting calls to upgrade its policy on the environmental, social and human rights ramifications of the projects it supports.
Read moreBudapest airport torments neighbours as expansion project evades environmental checks
Blog entry | 11 October, 2021The expansion of Budapest’s Ferenc Liszt International Airport, financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB), illustrates how big infrastructure projects are promoted at the expense of people and the environment, ignoring EU environmental requirements and the EIB’s own environmental and social standards. However, what is most striking about this case is the fact that a project with EU financial support, has ended up trapping citizens in miserable lives only few are able to flee.
Read moreTrouble in the air: EIB ignores environmental and social burdens caused by Budapest Airport expansion
Publication | 11 October, 2021The Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport is located 16 kilometres from the centre of Budapest. With a licence for a capacity of 6 million passengers per year and 15 million in the peak year of 2019, new plans to develop the airport aim to increa
Read moreWhy can a third of European Investment Bank lending evade the Bank’s environmental and social rules?
Publication | 21 September, 2021The European Investment Bank’s (EIB) financial intermediaries (FIs) help the EIB to reach smaller clients than it would otherwise be able to finance. The EIB’s global lending via intermediaries amounted to EUR 22.6 billion in 2020. In the EU, credit li
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