D1 Motorway, Slovakia – EBRD AGM Issue Paper
Publication | 15 May, 2009The D1 motorway is one of the key priorities of the Slovak government and in line for EBRD and EIB support. The government as repeatedly declared its intention to finish the project by 2010, but the currently planned route was not subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment and represents a serious impact on the NATURA 2000 network. Apart from the disregard of EIA recommendations which favoured a variant that bypasses almost all important natural habitats, several crucial questions have to be asked at the EBRD London AGM on May 15-16.
Read moreNabucco: a short sighted answer to the energy security challenge – EBRD AGM Issue Paper
Publication | 15 May, 2009Both EBRD and EIB consider support for the construction of the Nabucco gas pipeline. But proponents of the project successfully avoid several important issues. Among them are the human rights records of the potential partners Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, both ranked among the most authoritarian regimes in the world.
Read moreBubbling under the surface: The role of western public finance in the crisis hitting central and eastern Europe
Publication | 14 May, 2009The financial and economic crisis unravelling across the world economy has fundamentally changed economic policy imperatives for states and international financial institutions, including those operating at the European level. This situation offers the opportunity to articulate policies favourable to progressive social and environmental aims as integral parts of effective and transformative plans for economic recovery. While todays policy makers are unlikely to be moved by such arguments at this point, broader layers of social actors engaged in debates about the crisis most definitely will. This report seeks to provide guidance for their mobilisation by considering the context, formulation and delivery of crisis response policies by the EC, the EIB and the EBRD in relation to the CEE economies.
Read moreBankwatch Mail 40
Publication | 14 May, 2009In this issue: Nabucco spells energy securitisation not security * Crisis puts the EBRD back in the same old business * EBRD complaint mechanism gets a personality * EBRD drawing more power lines in Ukraine’s unsustainable energy sands * An end to energy efficiency excuses in Ukraine * Flagship PPP road project to be built with state money * ArcelorMittal – Going nowhere slowly * Hopeless in Gazela * New Gazela documentary * More dirty energy development for Albania * Smoke on Georgian water privatisation * Faster, smarter but more destructive crisis money for CEE?
Read moreArcelorMittal continues to pollute and uproot peoples lives
Press release | 12 May, 2009ArcelorMittal needs to move beyond good intentions on environmental and social improvements and turn words into deeds. Despite its rhetoric on social responsibility, the company continues to destroy the environment, risk peoples lives and displace local communities, according to a new report launched today by the Global Action on ArcelorMittal coalition to coincide with the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Luxembourg.
Read moreComplaint to EIB regarding breaches of EU legislation in preparations for the D1 motorway
Publication | 4 May, 2009Bankwatch member group Friend of the Earth-CEPA outlines in the complaint letter the breaches of EU legislation it believes have taken place during the preparation of the Turany – Hubov section of the D1 motorway. Both the EIB and EBRD are requested to halt plans for financing the project until the noted issues have been resolved, and the European Commission is asked to reconsider its acceptance of the project.
Read moreBankwatch Mail 39
Publication | 1 April, 2009In this issue: Earth calling the IFIs – Take me to your added value * Countdown to Copenhagen finds the EU stuck in limbo * Wind frozen and trees cut in Latvian crisis measures * The penny starts to drop on PPPs * Oil, gas and the IFIs: Sketching some lines on the horizon * Landmark legal victory compels Ex-Im Bank and OPIC to get real on their fossil fuel lending * Transparency fever gripping the World Bank?
Read moreQuality review of the EIA for the Porto Romano thermal power plant
Publication | 20 March, 2009This independent quality review of the Environmental Impact Assessment study highlights more than 25 shortcomings in the assessment, including the studys failure to: consider alternative energy scenarios to coal power; analyse properly the carbon dioxide emissions; assess the socio-economic impacts of the project and provide for management and monitoring plans. Based on this quality review as well as the opposition from the local communities the Municipality of Durres declared itself officially against the project in April 2009.
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First tranche of EIB car “crisis” loans requires scrutiny, warn Bankwatch and Greenpeace
Press release | 12 March, 2009The European Investment Bank (EIB) has today extended EUR 3 billion in soft loans to eight European carmakers for the development and production of cleaner vehicles. CEE Bankwatch Network and Greenpeace call on the EIB to ensure that money goes to initiatives with a true impact on cutting carbon emissions from cars and not just to small-scale greenwash projects.
Read moreLetter to EBRD president regarding financing for several highway sections in Slovakia
Publication | 5 December, 2008Recently the Slovak parliament adopted Act 669/2007 which allows motorways to be built on private property that has not been bought or expropriated at the time of construction. This creates favorable conditions for private investors engaged in building highways under public-private partnership ( PPP ) schemes. The act directly violates the right to the peaceful enjoyment of possessions guaranteed by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its protocols, which is the basic norm of the EU in the area of human rights.
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