No renovation wave in sight across EU recovery plans in central and eastern Europe
Blog entry | 26 July, 2021In the national recovery and resilience plans, energy efficiency and building renovations can play a key role for Member States to achieve the required target of 37 per cent of expenditures related to climate. The potential to modernise buildings is the greatest in central and eastern Europe, where the building stock is particularly inefficient. But an assessment of eight national plans across the region finds uneven progress towards these aims. Christophe Jost of Bankwatch concludes that this is likely to hamper efforts to decarbonise the region’s building stock in line with the Renovation Wave´s ambitious objectives.
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Estonia barely scratches the surface on green recovery
Blog entry | 30 June, 2021Estonia’s recovery and resilience plan was one of the last to be submitted to the European Commission. Yet despite the extra time it took authorities to develop, the plan is based on an incomplete vision of a green recovery which completely ignores the issues of biodiversity and nature protection.
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Commission must apply spending rules to EU recovery funds before greenlighting national plans
Press release | 17 June, 2021The European Commission has released its first assessments of how Member States plan to spend from EUR 672 billion Recovery and Resilience Facility, and Bankwatch urges the Commission to ensure that commitments for spending on climate and biodiversity protection are met before the plans are approved.
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Hungary’s recovery plan – not green, just, or resilient
Blog entry | 2 June, 2021Although the Hungarian recovery and resilience plan has undergone major changes since its first draft, it is still far from ensuring a green and just recovery. Despite MTVSZ / Friends of the Earth Hungary’s proposals, the final version leaves households alone in their efforts to improve energy efficiency and fails to propose easily-achievable biodiversity measures. If small modifications are made during the EU-level approval process, the plan could be improved considerably.
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Billions of EU recovery money to support fossil fuels
Press release | 31 May, 2021Several EU states plan to use the EUR 672 billion Recovery and Resilience Facility to expand fossil gas infrastructure using loopholes in the fund’s regulations. These proposals do not comply with objectives of the European Green Deal and recent recommendations from the International Energy Agency to end funding for fossil fuels, warns CEE Bankwatch Network.
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EU Ombudsman launches probe into assessment of priority gas projects at EU’s doorstep
Blog entry | 10 May, 2021The European Commission’s oversight of the sustainability assessments of priority-labelled gas infrastructure projects in the Western Balkans will be investigated by the European Ombudsman, following a Bankwatch complaint about their climate footprint.
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Uneven progress towards green recovery as EU members submit spending plans to access EUR 672 billion fund
Press release | 28 April, 2021Brussels – EU Member States that opened up their spending plans for the EUR 672 billion Recovery and Resilience Facility have made the most progress towards the aims of the European Green Deal, finds a new assessment of eight countries in central and eastern Europe.
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Estonia’s EU recovery fund measures are promising yet potentially obstructive
Blog entry | 20 April, 2021Estonia has good intentions to use the recovery fund to become more resilient while supporting the green transition. However, these intentions are overshadowed by uncertainty and lack of scrutiny, as there is no publicly available strategic framework to bring all of the plan’s measures together, and many measures proposed could in fact undermine the European Green Deal.
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Czech recovery plan a few steps away from being on the right path
Blog entry | 19 April, 2021Thanks to pressure from civil society, several harmful investments in highways and gas infrastructure were taken out of the Czech recovery plan, pushing it towards more of a green recovery. Still, an almost complete lack of allocations for biodiversity and several questionable climate measures set the plan back.
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Opportunities for biodiversity and environment missed in Bulgarian recovery plan
Blog entry | 15 April, 2021Instead of reforms, the country plans to rehab an irrigation system that can potentially destroy wetlands, and without transparency and public dialogue, the plan cements business-as-usual. With a 30 April deadline for submitting national recovery plans approaching and recent parliamentary elections, the Bulgarian government is failing to propose reforms and measures for biodiversity, sustainable agriculture and low carbon economy. Instead, actions such as rehabilitating state-owned irrigation systems not only contradict national strategies but might damage valuable wetland habitats. A lack of transparency and public dialogue casts a further shadow on the process.
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