Europe has ambitions to become a global leader in the fight against climate breakdown. Transforming the continent’s energy systems and shifting towards climate-friendly alternatives requires massive investments, especially in central and eastern Europe, where outdated infrastructure and a reliance on fossil fuels persists.
The good news is that the EU has the financial means to fund this transformation. The challenge is ensuring that the investments of today are geared towards addressing the climate crisis and Europe’s declining state of nature.
We know that when people have a voice in investment decisions, the results speak for themselves: more acceptance and ownership of spending and a greater chance that harmful and wasteful projects are avoided.
We work to ensure that EU financial flows address the climate crisis and do no harm to people and nature. We do this by involving the public in the design and spending of EU investments.
IN FOCUS
Just transition
Countries across central and eastern Europe are committing to quit coal and shale oil. Now the task is to ensure that the just transition is driven from the bottom up and leaves no one behind as we move towards a sustainable energy future.
Building back biodiversity
Threats facing biodiversity are increasing alongside the drivers of the climate crisis. But investments in climate protection should not come at the expense of those that can help biodiversity. The two crises of climate and biodiversity are interconnected and both must be tackled together, because only by investing in nature can we tackle climate change.
Latest news
More Harm than Good: The Misuse of European Biodiversity Funds
Bankwatch in the media | 2 August, 2022Supported by EU funding, local municipalities are carrying out projects involving the removal of trees and the degradation of natural …
Read moreThe Hungarian energy emergency action plan: delaying the national fossil fuel phase-out, undermining EU energy solidarity
Blog entry | 1 August, 2022The quickly prepared Hungarian energy emergency action plan, which comes into effect today on 1 August, is supposed to increase national energy supply security through seven measures. But as our assessment and those of other experts show, even if the plan runs only temporarily and in the short term, the consequences will be felt by Hungarian citizens in the longer term.
Read more用“不造成重大损害”原则让经济活动真正为实现环境目标作出贡献
Bankwatch in the media | 1 August, 2022导语包含投资（尤其是公共投资）在内的经济活动，需要更严格地审查自身对于绿色转型所作出的贡献和拖累。“不造成重大损害”（DNSH, Do No Significant Harm）原则的应用，便是推动经济活动领域完成这一步骤的关键举措。然而，针对欧盟“国家复苏与韧性计划”（ …
Read moreRelated publications
Comments on the proposal to amend the Recovery and Resilience Facility regulation in the context of REpowerEU
Briefing | 20 July, 2022 | Download PDFThe briefing, prepared by CAN Europe and CEE Bankwatch Network and sent to the Members of the European Parliament on 19th July 2022, assesses key components of the European Commission’s proposal to amend the Recovery and Resilience Facility regulation in the context of the REPowerEU plan and proposes recommendations to feed in the legislative process
Assessment of Romania’s operational programmes
Briefing | 14 July, 2022 | Download PDFThis briefing offers an analysis of the Romania’s draft operational programmes for 2021-2027 and recommendations regarding the potential for increasing the programmes’ climate and environmental contributions.
Behind the ‘green recovery’: How the EU recovery fund is failing to protect nature and what can still be saved
Report | 2 June, 2022 | Download PDFThis report prepared by CEE Bankwatch Network and EuroNatur, shines a spotlight on the implementation of recovery funds, and reveals a series of harmful reforms and investments for biodiversity set to be financed in nine central and eastern European Member States (Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Slovenia).
