May 29, 2019 | Read more Beli Bryag, Bulgaria – Around one hundred villagers in the village of Beli Bryag, in Bulgaria’s Stara Zagora region, are anxiously awaiting for a resolution to their claims of proper resettlement by the Maritsa East mines, the company gearing up to expand its lignite mine to where the village currently stands. They have only until the end of the year before they are expropriated. [1]
May 24, 2019 | Read more As the European Parliament elections begin, many commentators, especially in northern and western Europe, have hailed this year’s elections to be the first where climate change and policy will play a major role in voters’ decisions. Even in southern European countries, climate change has moved to the top of its political agenda. On the other, central and eastern European countries have allegedly missed this green wave sweeping through the EU.
May 16, 2019 | Read more As a result of public resistance to small-scale hydropower projects in the Balkans, from the beginning of 2020, the EBRD will ask commercial banks to refer all high-risk projects – including all hydropower plants – for additional checks. The EBRD also requires them to meet higher environmental standards than previously. The bank will ask that such projects are disclosed to the public on the financial intermediary’s website, finally increasing disclosure on these hitherto hidden projects.
May 13, 2019 | Read more Prishtina – Kosovar and international non-governmental organisations [1] have today submitted an official complaint to the Energy Community dispute settlement mechanism challenging the legality of the power purchase agreement for the planned Kosova e Re coal power project, which is currently awaiting ratification by the Kosovo parliament. [2]
May 10, 2019 | Read more There are many reasons why the Nenskra hydropower plant in Georgia should not be built at all. The project is set to have devastating environmental and social impacts, and its economics are particularly shoddy.
May 9, 2019 | Read more (Amsterdam, Prague, Washington, D.C.) — Civil society organizations welcomed the new grievance mechanism policy for the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
May 8, 2019 | Read more As the realisation of the project keeps dragging on, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the EBRD, and all international financial institutions involved, to justify their engagement.
May 6, 2019 | Read more Residents of Beli Bryag in Bulgaria’s Stara Zagora region anxiously await removal from their homes to make way for the expansion of a mine that feeds Maritsa East, the country’s largest coal complex.
April 29, 2019 | Read more The 2019 winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize from Europe Ana Colovic Lesoska has today called on development banks – the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Asian Development Bank and (ADB) the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) – to drop their funding for the Nenskra hydropower project planned in Georgia’s Caucasus mountains.
April 18, 2019 | Read more As the Board of Directors is expected to vote any day now on the renewed Policy which lays out the conditions for reaching the Bank’s sustainability mandate and commitment to EU standards, a compliance review on Serbia’s energy company’s corporate restructuring loan calls for clearer and stronger safeguards for corporate level loans.
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