New EIB report on SMEs: another rabbit in the hat from our favorite bank
Blog entry | 30 August, 2011The Bankwatch EIB team read the most recent report by the European Investment Bank on the bank’s crisis lending to small and medium enterprises and they were surprised by its main claims: unlike what the EIB says, our own research shows that EIB crisis loans to SMEs were more helpful to commercial banks disbursing them than to the cash-strapped small and medium enterprises they were supposed to help.
Read moreChercher la femme: gender equality sidelined in international finance
Blog entry | 10 August, 2011Manana Kochladze, Bankwatch’s regional coordinator for the Caucasus and co-author of our new civil society guide Gender and international financial institutions talks about the impacts on women’s lives when big money comes to help “develop” their countries.
Read more18 000 ask Slovenia to adopt clean energy. EBRD and EIB, take a hint.
Blog entry | 5 July, 201118 000 people from around the world have asked the Slovene government to adopt a future proof National Energy Plan that doesn’t rely on fossil fuels or nuclear energy. Bankwatch research coordinator Pippa Gallop took part in handing over the list of signatories yesterday and points out that European public banks also need to take the message seriously.
Read morePolish Presidency highlights EU climate paradox
Press release | 1 July, 2011As Poland starts its EU Presidency today, serious doubts loom over its willingness to provide ambitious leadership on EU climate policies. Paradoxically, it is the EU’s own public banks which are sponsoring the country’s unfettered coal industry, the root cause of Polish climate scepticism.
Read moreVideo: Polish perspectives on the EU presidency
Blog entry | 1 July, 2011Today Poland takes the helm of the EU presidency, but the country’s recent move to unilaterally block a 25 percent reduction target for EU carbon emissions has solidified expectations that Poland would hinder a more ambitious EU climate policy agenda.
Read moreCivil society groups in the Arab region say Western financial aid plan could divert the revolutions’ goals of economic and social justice
Press release | 27 June, 2011Arab civil society and international NGOs are opposing the EU and US backed financial aid package for post-revolutionary countries in their region on the grounds that it could damage the democratic transitions and divert the revolutions’ goals of economic and social justice.
Read moreDeja-vu in Belgrade
Blog entry | 22 June, 2011Bankwatch’s coordinator in Serbia Zvezdan Kalmar finds himself in a situation similar to the one when campaigning on the Gazela bridge project: Roma families live in uncertainty about when they’ll be resettled to make way for road construction, all the while with little influence about how decisions are made.
Read morePolice investigates irregularities at TES 6 in Slovenia
Press release | 8 June, 2011Ljubljana, Slovenia — The Slovenian police confirmed June 7 that it was looking into allegations of mismanagement at coal plant Sostanj, including serious questions over the building of new lignite block TES 6.
Read moreEIB transport lending is not just on a wrong track but hardly on tracks at all
Blog entry | 6 June, 2011Bankwatch’s EIB team leader Anna Roggenbuck, on her way to consultations on the European Investment Bank’s transport policy, has crunched the numbers of the bank’s transport sector lending. The result: while exhibiting a strong faith in future technological solutions the EIB is fuelling increased carbon emissions across Europe.
Read moreSlovenian government drops support for Sostanj coal plant; European public banks must follow suit
Press release | 5 May, 2011Ljubljana, Slovenia — CEE Bankwatch Network and Slovene NGO FOCUS are calling on the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to review their plans to provide 650 million euros in loans for the controversial 600 MW TES 6 block at Slovenian lignite plant Sostanj.
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