Civil society groups welcome cancellation of Slovak D1 motorway PPP
Press release | 3 September, 2010Friends of the Earth CEPA (Slovakia) and CEE Bankwatch Network applaud today’s cancellation [1] of the 9 billion euros public-private partnership (PPP) for the first phase of the D1 motorway in Slovakia and urged the new government to change the project’s routing to avoid damaging the Mala Fatra and Velka Fatra National Parks.
Read moreIn Moscow, thousands protest destruction of Khimki Forest
Blog entry | 23 August, 2010In spite of heavy policing, several thousand people yesterday rallied at a concert in Pushkin Square to voice opposition to the destruction of the Khimki Forest to make way for the EUR 1.5 billion first section of the Moscow – St. Petersburg motorway, a project that may receive financial blessings from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank.
Read moreKhimki Forest movement leader violently detained in Moscow
Press release | 4 August, 2010Yevgenia Chirikova, the leader of the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest, has today been forcibly detained by police in Moscow immediately after a press conference on the persecution of activists opposing the construction of a motorway through the Khimki Forest just outside Moscow. [1] At the time of writing she has been released after several hours of interrogation, but urged to come to Khimki’s police station tomorrow for another round of questioning.
Read moreEIB complaints office confirms shortcomings on Belgrade resettlement
Blog entry | 4 August, 2010After more than three months delay, the Complaints Office of the European Investment Bank recently released its concluding investigations (pdf) into the banks involvement in the resettlement of 175 predominately Roma families from underneath the Gazela bridge in Belgrade.
Read moreSounding the potential of a European budget “for the people and the climate”
Blog entry | 29 June, 2010After six months of preparations and more than 50 interviews with decision makers and experts, Bankwatch has met with representatives from the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to discuss how the next EU budget for the 2014-2020 period can effectively support a low-carbon economy with benefits for people and nature.
Read moreRusty reasoning: groups challenge EIB to justify the latest ArcelorMittal public millions
Blog entry | 11 March, 2010Although the world’s largest steel company, ArcelorMittal continues to receive support by international public finance. Neither does its chequered social and environmental record seem to change the public bank’s proclivity for this specific borrower.
Read moreTransparency allergy reappears at EIB, crisis billions still cloaked in confidentiality
Press release | 4 February, 2010CEE Bankwatch Network today criticised the European Investment Bank (EIB) for adopting a new transparency policy that persists in keeping the final destination of billions of publicly backed money unknown to the public.
Read moreChange the lending, not the climate
Blog entry | 2 December, 2009Bankwatch’s new report on the EIB’s fossil-heavy energy lending between 2002 and 2008 comes one week before the crunch global climate talks in Copenhagen, in preparation for which the international financial institutions have been flexing their rhetorical muscles.
Read moreViolations at EBRD power lines project spark clashes between police and villagers in Ukraine
Press release | 18 November, 2009A project financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in the Odessa region of Ukraine has this week been the scene of clashes between 300 police officers and villagers resisting the routing of high voltage power lines through their village. The EUR 25.8 million Odessa High Voltage Grid Upgrade project is being implemented by Ukraine’s national electricity company Ukrenergo in violation of agreements with the EBRD, the international public development bank and backer of the project.
Read moreNew ‘homes’ in Serbian temporary settlements are still far from acceptable
Blog entry | 20 October, 2009On 31 August 2009 the inhabitants of the Gazela informal settlement in Belgrade were resettled to temporary accommodation at four sites outside of Belgrade. After a visit conducted by partner group CEKOR in September which found a number of important issues needing to be addressed, Bankwatch carried out a follow-up fact-finding mission on 6-8 October 2009.
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