May 14, 2014 | Read more Warsaw – As the EBRD celebrates 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the benefits it has brought to its countries of operation in the post-socialist space, a new Bankwatch report criticises the bank for having systematically promoted a „markets above all” approach, which has often put democratic and environmental concerns on the back burner, and occasionally proved straightforwardly detrimental to the region. The Bankwatch analysis is available for download here: https://bankwatch.org/EBRD-stuck-in-market
May 5, 2014 | Read more Zagreb, 05.05.2014 – A planned long-term power purchase agreement in which Croatian electricity company HEP will commit to buying at least 50% of electricity from the planned Plomin C power plant for 20-30 years will most likely be illegal under EU state aid rules, according to a new legal analysis by Hungary’s Environmental Management and Law Association (EMLA).
May 5, 2014 | Read more Coal investments are a dying breed in many countries, but some investors are still ready to try their luck in southeast Europe and Turkey. For campaigners who want to communicate with these actors Bankwatch has developed the user-friendly online toolkit Kings of Coal in three languages.
May 1, 2014 | Read more It’s not that easy to pull off a celebratory mood this 1st of May, even though on this date we mark the anniversary of 10 years since most of central and eastern Europe joined the European Union.
April 29, 2014 | Read more CEE Bankwatch Network strongly condemns the Russian government’s military invasion and annexation of Crimea and Sebastopol. We hope that in the end the voices of those who have been demonstrating for peace in Moscow and elsewhere, in both Russia and Ukraine, will prevail. The European Union has already responded to the Crimean declaration of independence by announcing travel bans and bank account freezes for 48 individuals from Russia and Ukraine linked to the Crimean breakaway.
April 28, 2014 | Read more The SOCAR Refinery project and its ‘secret’ coal power plant show the magnitude of the problems that the mixture of business interests, coal and neglect of local health concerns may cause in Turkey.
April 16, 2014 | Read more One year after a landslide destroyed thirteen houses the Kolubara mining company continues to dump waste in the same area without information from its investigations forthcoming. Locals fear that more landslides may occur. Bankwatch member group CEKOR has now increased pressure on the company and the EBRD.
April 15, 2014 | Read more At the end of May the whole of Europe will be going to the ballot box for the 2014 European Parliament elections. But when the votes are counted and members-to-be (MEPs) take their place, who are they going to represent – people or profit? The Bankwatch supported campaign Politics for people asks them to take a pledge against the latter.
April 15, 2014 | Read more Today, the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU), AK EUROPA (Brussels office of the Austrian Chamber of Labour) & ÖGB Europabüro (Brussels office of the Austrian Trade Union Federation), together with a broad coalition of civil society organisations from across Europe, are launching their campaign to urge candidates for the upcoming European elections to “stand-up for citizens and democracy against the excessive lobbying influence of banks and big business”.
April 15, 2014 | Read more On Thursday in Skopje, over 100 people attended the first public conference [mk] regarding the two planned hydropower plants in the Mavrovo National Park, one of the oldest and most valuable protected areas in the country. A petition to save the park that was launched one day earlier has already gathered over 13 000 signatures.
Stay informed
Receive our monthly overviews of the latest developments on the ground.