Bankwatch

Home > Archives for Press release

Press release

Slovakia: Platform for Coal Regions in Transition could benefit coal company instead of communities

Upper Nitra, Slovakia’s main coal region, is one of the priority regions of the European Commission’s Platform for Coal Regions in Transition, via which the EC aims to help regions moving away from coal to prosper.

The call for proposals came on 22 March, following a closed-door meeting between government representatives, the Vice-President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic, and main Slovak coal company HBP (the final template for projects was sent even later).

The call included a very short deadline – little over a month – for submitting proposals. Such a short deadline is a clear sign Slovakian authorities care little about citizen participation in shaping the future of Upper Nitra. The only actor that will be able to mobilise fast and submit projects is likely to be the coal company itself.

Slovakia is one of the few countries in the EU to subsidise electricity coming from domestic underground lignite mining: HBP gets through Slovak electricity company about 100 million euros annually generated from a feed-in-tariff applied to Slovak consumers.

‘HBP already gets more state support than it should,’ says Lenka Ilcikova from Friends of the Earth CEPA Slovakia/ Bankwatch. ‘There is no reason it should be allowed to suck even more resources away from local communities – those made available under the Coal Platform.’

‘The European Commission must avoid being dragged into a dirty domestic Slovak game, whereby a coal company and politicians have helped each other keep power and resources for decades.’

What is even more outrageous about the short deadline for projects is that, only in January, the body representing local authorities in Upper Nitra announced the start of a participatory, bottom-up process to create an Action Plan for the region’s post-coal future. The process is meant to last throughout most of 2018 and be open to all citizens.

Today’s deadline for the call for proposals makes a mockery out of this process. It would only enable the coal company to cash in more resources, potentially with the excuse of promoting clean coal.

‘Kicking off work on the European Platform with such a dubious practice jeopardises the reputation and future of the Platform from the start,’ said Lenka Ilcikova. ‘Mr. Sefcovic, who knows Slovakia closely, should know better.’

For more information, contact

Lenka Ilcikova
Friends of the Earth CEPA / Bankwatch
tel. 00421 905 580 031
ilcikova@priateliazeme.sk
 www.priateliazeme.sk/cepa/

www.bankwatch.org

Statement on today’s General Affairs Council

Brussels, April 12, 2018

“At the monthly meeting of the General Affairs Council (GAC), ministers have agreed on a number of limited conclusions on the Cohesion policy that are inadequate to efficiently reform the Cohesion Policy and unlock its transformative potential.

“This decision is particularly important in the course of the negotiations over the EU’s post-2020 budget plan, since cohesion and ESI funds make for a large share of Europe’s budget.

“Bankwatch and a growing number of civil society groups have been repeatedly calling on EU policymakers to ensure that no Europeans are left behind, and particularly not those in the EU’s least developed regions.

“As Europe is grappling with the polarization of social and political discourse, and specifically the rise of nationalism across the continent, the case for a strong, sustainable and democratic Cohesion Policy could not be clearer.

“Specifically, ensuring that EU public money helps transform our energy systems is key to Europe’s role in tackling the climate crisis, and it can also be instrumental in reinforcing the EU project as one that is citizen-led. A reformed Cohesion Policy could help unite Europeans around the much needed energy transition, but the GAC has failed to acknowledge this.

“The EU’s next Cohesion Policy needs to contribute to the global efforts to tackle climate change. To do so, it has to support replacing the dirty, outdated and carbon-intensive energy systems in central eastern Europe with clean, participatory and renewables-based ones. This is no favour – an ambitious Cohesion Policy with climate action and just transition at its heart would benefit both local communities and Europe at large. It’s the disparities and deep inequality between regions that threaten to tear apart Europe’s unique human fabric. And in their decision today, EU ministers have shown that this effectively a lower priority.

“There is also a need to ensure that EU spending is genuinely transparent, accountable and inclusive. Mounting scandals around the use of EU money only help breed euro-scepticism, and member states have the means to ensure that EU laws are adhered to. Increasing support for prosumers and community energy projects, as well as better tackling energy poverty should be prioritised for a Cohesion Policy that is citizen-focussed.

“Today’s General Affairs Council has failed to make the necessary steps for Europe to reconnect to its citizens. In three weeks, the European Commission is scheduled to publish its own proposals for the EU’s next Cohesion Policy. It is crucial that this document draws up a comprehensive and ambitious vision.”

 

For more information contact:

Raphael Hanoteaux
EU Policy Officer, CEE Bankwatch Network
raphaelh@bankwatch.org
Tel. +32 496 205.903

International banks fuelling a hydropower tsunami that’s decimating pristine Balkan rivers – study

The study [1] finds that the number of hydropower projects in the region that enjoy financial support from multilateral development banks [2] and commercial banks, is even greater than previously known.

Since 2005, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the World Bank Group have extended loans and guarantees totalling EUR 727 million to no fewer than 82 hydropower plants. This includes 37 projects in protected areas like national parks and Natura 2000 sites, or internationally recognised areas of high biodiversity value such as Important Bird Areas.

The EBRD is the biggest known hydropower financier in the Balkans. The bank has supported a total of 61 plants with EUR 126 million, 29 of them inside protected areas, or internationally recognised biodiversity hotspots.

Although the bank has been more cautious in recent years, it is still considering financing for the Babino Selo plant on the Vrbas and Neretvica cascade in Bosnia-Herzegovina, both of which are planned in biodiversity-rich areas.

The study, which updates a report released in 2015 [3], also finds that commercial bank money is playing a key role in enabling controversial hydropower projects. Commercial bank financing is harder to track due to the lack of transparency in the sector, but the study authors have identified 158 plants with such financing, of which 55 are in protected areas or internationally recognised areas of high biodiversity value.

The most prolific commercial banks – as far as identified – are Austria’s Erste & Steiermaerkische Bank and Italy’s Unicredit Group, for which 28 loans each were found.

Among others, Erste has financed a cluster of seven plants on the borders of Serbia’s Kopaonik National Park. These, together with another eight plants in the area financed from other sources, have left large stretches of the local streams with little or no water for much of the year.

“The financiers need to take their share of the responsibility and ensure compliance with local and international standards. Reckless investment decisions can ruin hundreds of pristine Balkan rivers for good,” says Igor Vejnović, Bankwatch’s Hydropower Policy Officer and co-author of the study.

“The EBRD and EIB will be updating their environmental and social policies this year. This is a crucial opportunity to tighten their rules and exclude financing for hydropower in sensitive areas,” adds Pippa Gallop, Bankwatch’s Research Co-ordinator and co-author of the study.

“The Balkan rivers are of outstanding value within Europe. The dam tsunami is threatening biodiversity and local communities. It is unacceptable that also commercial banks like the Austrian Erste Bank and Italian Unicredit are supporting even the worst projects. They have decent rules on financing hydropower in theory, but aren’t implementing them properly in practice. Many of the plants they have financed would never be allowed in their home countries. They have to stop the financing of hydropower in the Balkans,” says Ulrich Eichelmann of Riverwatch.

“The good news is that more than a thousand planned hydropower plants have no financing yet, so there is still much that can be done to save the Balkans’ unique rivers,” says Gabriel Schwaderer, Executive Director of the EuroNatur Foundation.

The study and the accompanying databases can be found here.

The study was commissioned as part of the campaign “Save the Blue Heart of Europe”

For more information contact:

Igor Vejnović
Hydropower Policy Officer

CEE Bankwatch Network

igor.vejnovic@bankwatch.org

+ 420 274 822 150

Pippa Gallop
Research Co-ordinator
CEE Bankwatch Network
pippa.gallop@bankwatch.org
+385 99 755 9787

Ulrich Eichelmann
CEO, Riverwatch
ulrich.eichelmann@riverwatch.eu
+43 676 6621512

Anja Arning
EuroNatur
Public Relations
anja.arning@euronatur.org
+49 7732 927213

Notes to editors:

[1] The study covers Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. It examines hydropower plants which have either been built since 2005 or are now being planned. It is an update of Bankwatch’s December 2015 report on this issue, with expanded information on Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria and the role of commercial banks.

A total of 2112 hydropower plants were identified as being planned now or having entered operation since 2005. Most of the plants are only in the planning stage and for 1119 projects we believe that no financing has yet been found. Signed financing was identified for 239 projects and planned financing for 20 more. For 734 greenfield projects we could not trace financing due to the lack of transparency in this field.

‘Plants’ refers to each separate hydropower facility, so one loan or guarantee may cover several plants but still be classed as a single ‘project’ by a financier.

[2] The EBRD, European Investment Bank and the World Bank Group (in this case the International Financial Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency).

[3] Financing for Hydropower in Protected Areas in Southeast Europe (December 2015): https://bankwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/SEE-hydropower-financing.pdf

Save the Blue Heart of Europe campaign:

About 2800 new dams are currently projected between Slovenia and Albania. In order to counteract this spate of destruction, ‘EuroNatur’ and ‘RiverWatch’ have launched the “Save the Blue Heart of Europe” campaign in cooperation with local partners in the respective Balkan countries. Find out more here: http://www.balkanrivers.net

Controversial Turkish-Azerbaijani gas pipeline gets major EU loan

Prague, Brussels, Rome, London – Today the board of directors of the European Investment Bank (EIB) green-lighted a EUR 932 million loan to the Trans Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP), the Turkish section of the Southern Gas Corridor, a month after handing out the largest ever fossil fuels loan to the western section of the same project.

The Southern Gas Corridor is the biggest energy project the EU is currently pursuing, with the intention of annually delivering 6 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas to Turkey and additional 10 billion cubic meters to the EU. Scheduled to be completed later this year, the 1800 kilometers long TANAP would traverse Turkey from the border with Georgia to the border with Greece.

Civil society groups – including Bankwatch, Counter Balance, 350.org, Re:Common, CEO, Friends of the Earth Europe and many others – have been repeatedly warning that the Southern Gas Corridor project is at odds with EU commitments on both human rights and climate action [1].

A study released by Bankwatch in late January has shown that, due to fugitive methane emissions and burning of gas, the Southern Gas Corridor’s climate footprint could be comparable to that of coal, the dirtiest source of energy, or even worse [2].

In addition, there are mounting concerns over corruption among both governments and companies involved in realising the Southern Gas Corridor. In Turkey, all subcontractors hired by the state-owned energy firm Botas for the project have close ties to President Erdogan’s AK Party, according to a Bankwatch report from December 2016 [3]. An international journalistic investigation published in April 2017 also unveiled the extensive network of politically exposed people in Turkey and Azerbaijan that stand to directly benefit from the project [4].

In light of the disturbing human rights situation under the increasingly authoritarian regimes in both Turkey and Azerbaijan, last December, 33 Members of the European Parliament wrote to EIB President Werner Hoyer, urging him to suspend plans to finance the TANAP project [5].

Today’s approval of the EIB’s loan adds to chain of investments in the Southern Gas Corridor from multilateral development banks now totalling over EUR 6 billion in public money.

This decision also took place a day after the European Court of Auditors criticized European financial support to Turkey for being particularly ineffective when it came to the independence of the Turkish judicial system, fighting corruption and media freedom [6].

Anna Roggenbuck, Policy Officer at CEE Bankwatch Network, said: “With the decision to finance TANAP, the EIB has shown its disregard to Europe’s commitments to climate change mitigation.This project has been approved without a proper climate impact assessment, and in contradiction to pledges under the Paris Agreement to keep global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius which entails limiting fossil fuels consumption.”

Xavier Sol, Director of Counter Balance, said: “The EIB today decided to give a blank cheque to energy companies controlled by the autocratic regimes of Turkey and Azerbaijan. The EU bank has been repeatedly ducking its responsibilities by hiding behind the political support of the European Commission and External Action Service to the Southern Gas Corridor. The bank has given no evidence of the human rights impact assessment it should have carried out at project level, and demonstrates that it simply disregards human rights issues effectively placing them at the lowest of its priorities”.

Elena Gerebizza, energy campaigner at Re:Common, said: “This decision raises serious concerns on the credibility of the EIB in the fight against corruption, in its respect for democracy as well as the core principles of the EU the bank is supposed to uphold. We expected the EIB to carry out an in-depth due diligence process on the politically exposed people linked to the Azerbaijani Laundromat scandal in Turkey and in Azerbaijan. Instead, the EIB chose to pour more money into companies that are at the core of the power structure in these countries, with no guarantee of delivering any good to the people. This is a shame.”

Colin Roche, extractives campaigner with Friends of the Earth Europe, said: “Like adding gas to a fire, today’s decision by the EIB, the EU’s investment bank, to pour more funds into new gas infrastructure is yet another cash injection for climate destruction. The more we invest in gas pipelines like TANAP the more we lock Europe into decades of fossil fuel dependency when we need to be moving to a fossil free future.”

Notes to editors:

[1] Human rights concerns over EIB loan to TANAP (September 2017): http://bit.ly/2HzUwX0 [PDF]

[2] Smoke and mirrors: why the climate promises of the Southern Gas Corridor don’t add up (January 2018) https://bankwatch.org/publication/smoke-and-mirrors-why-the-climate-promises-of-the-southern-gas-corridor-don-t-add-up

[3] Risky business – Who benefits from the Southern Gas Corridor (December 2016)  https://bankwatch.org/risky-business

[4] The Pipeline of the Three Regimes (April 2017) http://espresso.repubblica.it/inchieste/2017/04/18/news/the-pipeline-of-the-three-regimes-1.299786

[5] Letter from 33 MEPs to EIB President Werner Hoyer (December 2017) https://bankwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/EIB-TANAP-loan-33-MEPs-signatures.pdf [PDF]

[6]  The Court of Auditors report “EU pre-accession assistance to Turkey: Only limited results so far” is available here: https://www.eca.europa.eu/en/Pages/DocItem.aspx?did=45148

For more information contact:

Xavier Sol
Director, Counter Balance
xavier.sol@counter-balance.org
+ 32(0)2 893 08 61
Twitter: @xavier_sol

Anna Roggenbuck
EIB Policy Officer, CEE Bankwatch Network
annar@bankwatch.org
Mobile: +48 509970424
Office: +48 91 831 5392

Elena Gerebizza
Energy Campaigner, Re:Common
egerebizza@recommon.org
+39 3406705319
Twitter: @elegere

Noelie Audi-Dor
Keep It In the Ground coordinator, 350.org
noelie@350.org
+447927110002
Twitter : @350Europe

Pascoe Sabido
Researcher, Corporate Europe Observatory
pascoe@corporateeurope.org
+44 7969 665 189
Twitter: @pascoesabido

Colin Roche
colin.roche@foeeurope.org
Extractive Industries Campaigner, Friends of the Earth Europe
+32 (0)2 8931021
Twitter: @ColinRoche

European Parliament calls for future EU budget to support the energy transformation in regions that need it most

CEE Bankwatch Network applauds the Parliament’s report because of the emphasis placed on MFF spending being directed towards transforming Europe’s energy system and as well the importance of Cohesion Policy, a critical pot of money for less developed regions across the EU.

The Parliamentarians’ report stands in contrast to recent calls for cuts to Cohesion Policy resources, advocating instead for a significant increase in the overall size of the EU budget.

At the same time, the report stresses that Cohesion Policy should continue to be the main investment policy that covers all EU regions, with the majority of its resources being concentrated on the most vulnerable and carbon-intensive regions, which are often located in central and eastern Europe.

Bankwatch believes that the report is a strong signal to capitals across the region to seize the opportunity for a transformation of their carbon-intensive economies by implementing commitments of the Paris Agreement and meeting the EU’s 2030 climate and energy goals, while phasing-out harmful subsidies for fossil fuels.

Barbora Urbanová, national campaigner in the Czech Republic for Bankwatch and member Centre for Transport and Energy, said: “MEPs got it right with this report. The heel dragging on climate by governments in our region cannot continue, so laying the foundations for a strong Cohesion Policy that can bridge the investment gap for transforming the energy sector is a hard carrot to ignore.”

Juraj Melichar, national campaigner in Slovakia for Bankwatch and member Friends of the Earth-CEPA, said: “Making more money available through the MFF to unlock the potential for sustainable renewables is a great way to reconnect people to the European project. A solar panel on a roof or a heat pump in households will go a long ways in demonstrating the added value of Cohesion Policy.”

Selina Vancane, national campaigner in Latvia for Bankwatch and member Green Liberty, said: “Reforming Cohesion Policy is needed, and rather than simply shrinking it, this report kick starts a move towards an ambitious, sustainable and democratic People’s Budget that works for all Europeans.”

For more information, contact

Barbora Urbanová

Centre for Transport and Energy, Czech Republic
Email: barbora.urbanova@ecn.cz
Mobile: +420 605 276 909

Juraj Melichar
CEE Bankwatch Network, Friends of the Earth-CEPA, Slovakia
Email: juraj.melichar@bankwatch.org
Mobile: +421 903 473 816

Selina Vancane
CEE Bankwatch Network, Green Liberty, Latvia
Email: selina.vancane@bankwatch.org
Mobile: +371 263 000 52

Notes

[1] The BUDGET Committee draft report is available here.

The report comes in advance of a 23 February informal European Council meeting of heads of states to discuss the next budget priorities.

Controversial gas pipeline gets EUR 1.5 billion in public money amid massive climate risk

CEE Bankwatch Network, Counter Balance, Friends of the Earth Europe, 350.org

Press release
For immediate release

Prague, Brussels –– The European Investment Bank (EIB) voted today to hand out one of Europe’s largest ever loans to one of the EU’s largest fossil fuel projects, the contentious Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
The loan approval follows the release of a study last week demonstrating that the Southern Gas Corridor – of which TAP is a part – could be as emissions-intensive or even more so than coal power. [1]

Over the past few years Bankwatch, Counter Balance, Friends of the Earth Europe, 350.org and a growing number of civil society groups across the world have warned that TAP and the entire Southern Gas Corridor project would be detrimental to the EU’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
In spite of these calls, none of the institutions promoting or financing the Southern Gas Corridor have actively publicised a climate impact assessment of this massive fossil gas project so far [2].

But a document obtained via a freedom of information request revealed [3] that the European Commissioner for Energy and Climate Action and the Vice President of the European Commission in charge of the Energy Union have been lobbying the EIB to green-light loans to TAP and the eastern section of the Southern Gas Corridor, the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP).

The EIB decision on the TAP project has already been delayed multiple times over the past years. Just days before its December meeting, the EIB’s board of directors, representing all 28 EU Members States, received over 4 000 emails from concerned citizens urging them not to fund TAP, resulting in another postponement of a decision on the project.

The December meeting, which coincided with the anniversary of the Paris Climate agreement and the One Planet climate finance summit, had been slated for a decision on the loan.

Xavier Sol, Director of Counter Balance, says: “We witnessed today a historical mistake by the EIB, a self-styled green finance champion which has shown its true colours. The bank is showing its poor consideration of climate challenges, as well as its disregard to the problematic human rights situation in Turkey and Azerbaijan.”

Colin Roche, extractives campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, says: “Having avoided the embarrassment of announcing a fossil fuel mega-loan on the anniversary of the Paris climate agreement, the European Investment Bank is now shamelessly locking Europe into decades of fossil fuel dependency even as the window for fossil fuel use is slamming shut. The Banks’s biggest ever investment in dangerous fossil fuels undermines the EU’s commitment to climate action when we urgently need to be transitioning to a fossil free future.”

Anna Roggenbuck, EIB Policy Office with CEE Bankwatch Network, says: “This is symptomatic that the Southern Gas Corridor has been approved without EU institutions disclosing its climate impact.”

Tim Ratcliffe from 350.org says: “There is no time to lose. While European politicians and financiers continue to put their support behind the fossil fuel industry, the local communities that will directly feel the negative impacts on their lives are determined to stop projects like these gas mega-pipelines from ever being built. More and more people across Europe are stepping up in support to ensure not a penny more is invested in climate-wrecking fossil fuels.”

Notes to editors

[1] Traversing Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before making a landfall on Italy’s southern shores, TAP is envisaged as the western section of the Southern Gas Corridor. A 3500 kilometre long chain of pipelines starting in Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II offshore gas field, this project is designed to pump annually ten billion cubic metres of fossil gas to Europe starting 2020, in addition to six billion cubic metres of gas that could arrive to Turkey as early as this year.

The independent climate impact assessment, conducted by researchers from the Observatori del Deute en la Globalització and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia is available at https://bankwatch.org/publication/smoke-and-mirrors-why-the-climate-promises-of-the-southern-gas-corridor-don-t-add-up

[2] The EBRD has at Bankwatch’s request disclosed a climate impact assessment for the Southern Gas Corridor, commissioned to Carbon Limits.

[3] Letter from Commissioners Miguel Arias Canete and Maros Sefcovic to Werner Hoyer: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/4741/response/15094/attach/3/gestdem%206199%20annexe%20letter%20CAB.pdf

[4] A recent study by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research found that EU countries can afford just nine more years of burning gas and other fossil fuels at the current rate before they will have exhausted their share of the earth’s remaining carbon budget for maximum temperature rises of 2°C http://www.foeeurope.org/new-study-incompatability-climate-safety-gas-071117

For more information contact

Xavier Sol
Director, Counter Balance
xavier.sol@counter-balance.org
+ 32(0)2 893 08 61
Twitter: @xavier_sol

Anna Roggenbuck
EIB Policy Officer, CEE Bankwatch Network
annar@bankwatch.org
Mobile: +48 509970424 Office: +48 91 831 5392

Colin Roche
Extractive Industries Campaigner, Friends of the Earth Europe
colin.roche@foeeurope.org
+32 (0)2893 1021

Mark Raven
European Communications, 350.org
mark@350.org
+90 5441 45425