Extra caution needed for Plomin C coal power plant project due to heightened corruption risks
October 2, 2014
The consortium that has been chosen as the preferred bidder for the controversial Plomin C 500 MW coal power plant project in Croatia consists of the two companies Marubeni and Alstom. Both have been involved in corruption scandals recently that led to sanctions from financing institutions. This briefing offers details on these cases.
Visegrad countries pose fresh threat to 2030 targets
October 1, 2014
Brussels – The group of four Visegrad countries (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) plus Romania and Bulgaria declared yesterday their readiness to block EU 2030 binding renewables and energy efficiency targets which are to be agreed upon at a European Council Oct. 23-24. Yet cracks are appearing in the group.
Zagreb residents protest incinerator plans ahead of new waste management plan approval
September 22, 2014
I had a strong sense of deja-vu today. On 31 March 2008, residents of the Zagreb suburb of Resnik held a protest against plans for a 385 000 tonnes per year waste incinerator which was to be built nearby. It was a sunny day and the majority of Resnik’s residents came along to show their opposition to yet another industrial facility being built in their neighbourhood and to push for a waste management system built on waste prevention and recycling.
A road to nowhere – the shortcomings of the S-7 expressway in Poland
September 15, 2014
The controversies around the „Skarzysko-Polnoc” junction compound to create a hotspot for the different issues related to road investments in Poland. The planned section threatens the valuable natural environment, and the project is lagging due to legal and procedural inadequacies in the decision-making process.
New Commission might sideline environment in CEE
September 11, 2014
Brussels — The priorities of European Commission president elect Jean-Claude Juncker for the newly-announced Commission threaten Europe’s climate and resource efficiency ambitions, says CEE Bankwatch Network. Particularly worrying from the perspective of CEE countries is an apparent shift in the vision of Regional Policy from making the European economy more sustainable, to “jobs, growth, investment and competitiveness” without any nod to green energy and resource efficiency.
Green 10 letter to President Juncker protesting the slidelining of environment in the new European Commission
September 11, 2014
In the letter, the ten leading environmental organisations in Europe express their grave concerns over the direction the EU seems to be taking with the new Commission. The structure of the new Commission, the mission letters, and the choice of Commissioners all reveal a serious downgrading of environment and a roll back of EU commitments to sustainable development, resource efficiency, air quality, biodiversity protection and climate action.
Europe’s finance ministers urged to stop EU Bank’s ‘extraordinary’ slide towards secrecy
September 11, 2014
Campaigners across Europe are urging the European Commission and their Ministers of Finance to halt a dangerous slide towards secrecy of the giant European Investment Bank (EIB), of which the EU member states are owners.
Corporate interest on way to win over the EU bank’s transparency policy
September 10, 2014
In the draft version of its new transparency policy the European Investment Bank is making access to information on its tens of billion euros lending harder than ever.
The future is ash-grey for people in Turceni, Romania
September 9, 2014
People in the Submaidane-Turceni area in Romania live their lives in coal ash that still hasn’t been cleaned up after an accident that took place in December 2013 at an ash deposit belonging to the Oltenia Energy Complex in Turceni.
Romanian government is seeking financial support in China for time travel into a lignite past
September 3, 2014
The renewables capacity installed in Romania has grown tenfold in the last five years and constitutes 23 percent of Romania’s installed energy capacity. Still, the government is pushing for new lignite-fired power plants.
