January 22, 2008 | Read more Close to 3000 residents of Vlora, an Albanian city on the Adriatic coast, greeted the visit of representatives of the World Banks Inspection Panel with a clear plea – end World Bank credits for the EUR 110m thermal power plant that is part of a huge energy park development threatening the sensitive Vlora bay.
December 31, 2007 | Read more The Civic Alliance for Protection of the Vlora Bay together with the Vlora Student Movement is now in the eighth day of protesting against construction of the Vlora thermo-power plant and a hydrocarbons terminal on a beach on the outskirts of the Albanian city located on the Adriatic coast. On December 25 a group of 30 people blocked the access road to the construction sites thus preventing further progress on both sites. Four days later, 10 protesters were arrested, including Eneid Hamzaj, the leader of the Vlora Student Movement.
November 29, 2007 | Read more With a resounding majority (540 MEPs in favour), the European Parliament today passed a resolution on trade and climate change which calls for “the discontinuation of public support, via export credit agencies and public investment banks, for fossil fuel projects”. The step was widely welcomed by environmental and development NGOs campaigning on export credit agencies (ECAs) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
October 18, 2007 | Read more The selection of projects for billions of euros of EU funding in Poland is widely perceived by Polish municipalities to be politically-driven and non-transparent, new research conducted by Bankwatch member group the Institute of Environmental Economics (IEE) has found.
October 12, 2007 | Read more Vlora, Albania – The city council of Vlora in Albania this week approved a citizens’ initiative to hold a public referendum on the development in the picturesque Bay of Vlora of a 200,000 ton oil and gas terminal that is being promoted by the Italian La Petrolífera Italo Rumena company. If constructed, the terminal would become another component of a controversial industrial and energy park located less than six kilometres north of Vlora, a city of more than 150,000 inhabitants.
October 2, 2007 | Read more Bankwatch staff members have just returned from an invigorating and productive meeting with environmental and human rights groups from 14 countries aimed at developing responses to the rash of oil pipeline projects being proposed in South East Europe to bring Russian and Caspian oil to Europe and the US.
August 30, 2006 | Read more The recent public debate organised in Bucharest to discuss the controversial USD 500 million Rosia Montana gold mine project have been disrupted and debased by the actions of the projects sponsor, the Canadian company Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC), allege Romanian groups. The Bucharest-based TERRA Mileniul III and the Centre for Legal Resources maintain that the discussions taking place as part of the gold project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure have been tainted by RMGC’s bussing in of rowdy supporters of the project and also because of crucial missing project documentation.
June 2, 2005 | Read more With the European Commission sponsored Green Week underway in Brussels, a new study has found that the European Investment Bank’s commitment to investing in renewable energy is in serious doubt owing to the EIB’s opaque information procedures and its definition of renewable energy projects.
June 3, 2004 | Read more Environmentalists and development advocates today decried the World Bank’s announcement of support for renewable energy as mere spin. Stating that the proposed increase is marginal at best and does nothing to address the Bank’s ongoing bias towards fossil fuels, the groups called on the Bank to adopt the recommendations of its own studies and phase out support for coal and oil while dramatically increasing its support for renewable energy.
March 16, 2004 | Read more Residents of Rustavi, Georgia’s third city, have today submitted an official complaint to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) concerning the potentially disastrous construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline only 250 metres from a settlement of high-rise buildings. [1] The residents are taking this step following a prolonged period of uncertainty for them and their homes, a lack of information and response from officials in Georgia and violent intimidation from the regional police force.
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