Putin’s visit to BXL: Russian NGOs call on Barroso to stop European financing of Russian motorways in light of HR abuses
Press release | 23 February, 2011Ahead of tomorrow’s meeting between Russian PM Vladimir Putin and EU representatives, a coalition of major Russian NGOs is urging President Barroso to make sure that EU financing institutions halt their participation in toll motorway projects in Russia until there are serious improvements in the human rights and public participation situation associated with these projects.
Read moreShadow report on discrimination in Serbia doesn’t cast the best light on EIB and EBRD
Blog entry | 18 February, 2011Roma’s discrimination in Serbia is to be discussed by the UN. Serbian member group CEKOR is contributing with experience from the Gazela resettlement process.
Read moreEBRD can’t stay away from Russian motorways – Khimki destruction goes ahead while women and children are being arrested
Blog entry | 11 February, 2011Yesterday, police in Khimki arrested an activist of the Movement for the Defence of Khimki Forest. The activist Alla Chernyshova and her daughters of 3 and 6 had to spend more than five hours in custody where she was questioned as the main suspect for a false bomb threat.
Read moreTree adoptions lead to more arrests in Khimki Forest
Blog entry | 17 January, 2011Despite the Russian government’s controversial decision to go ahead with the Moscow St. Petersburg motorway’s original routing through Khimki Forest, environmental activists have not given up their struggle to save the last remaining natural area in a densely populated region.
Read moreGetting from A to B while cutting out the GHGs – Is some ambitious, climate-real transport lending about to turn up at the EIB?
Blog entry | 7 December, 2010In the face of official EU statements stressing the need to decarbonise Europe’s transport sector, our analysis has found that a rise in EIB lending between 2006 and 2009 for roads and aviation has coincided with a dramatic decrease in EIB lending for urban public transport.
Read moreHave you voted in the 2010 worst EU lobbying awards yet?
Blog entry | 5 November, 2010ArcelorMittal, one of the candidates for the worst EU lobby award, is the world’s largest private steel company, producing 10 per cent of the world’s steel. It is also one of Europe’s largest emitters of CO2. Yet the company successfully lobbied the European Commission on behalf of Europe’s biggest polluters to continue getting free greenhouse gas emissions permits until at least 2020.
Read moreBaseball bat attack hospitalises Khimki Forest activist, latest violence connected with controversial Moscow-St Petersburg motorway plans
Press release | 4 November, 2010Environmental and human rights activist Konstantin Fetisov of Khimki near Moscow was today assaulted near his house by unknown assailants wielding a baseball bat and is now in a serious condition in hospital.
Read moreRotten perceptions, grim reality Turkmenistan off the agenda in European Parliament, Nabucco still nowhere near fit for purpose
Blog entry | 26 October, 2010Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, launched today, confirms Turkmenistan’s position as one of the world’s least democratic regimes. Promoters of the Nabucco gas pipeline project have opted to adopt a surprisingly tolerant approach to Turkmenistan’s endemic failings.
Read moreKhimki Forest activist arrested for holding banner during picket action
Blog entry | 13 September, 2010Russian activist Yaroslav Nikitenko was arrested by police on Saturday during a legally permitted picket action in the town of Khimki near Moscow. The action was part of the campaign to change the route of the planned Moscow-St Petersburg motorway so that it avoids the Khimki Forest.
Read moreNo public money for Nabucco – mega gas project a drain on clean energy, human rights and the environment, says Bankwatch
Press release | 6 September, 2010Budapest, Hungary — Reacting to today’s announcement by the Nabucco Consortium that international public banks are now officially commencing their appraisal of the EUR 7.9 billion (estimated) Nabucco gas pipeline project, watchdog group CEE Bankwatch Network called on the international financiers to reject what would be record European public finance for the project and instead to focus on the financing of clean energy in central and eastern Europe, particularly climate-friendly, job-boosting energy efficiency.
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