New report highlights misuse of banking secrecy rules
March 26, 2019
BankTrack’s study finds that client confidentiality is not an absolute legal requirement in any of the world’s major banking centres. Banks can – and do – include the right to disclose information into their contracts. Will the EIB & EBRD acknowledge this in their policies on intermediated lending?
EIB and Volkswagen keen to return to business as usual
March 7, 2019
Long overdue, and short on content, a compact version of the investigation report on the role of EIB money in the Dieselgate scandal affirms Bankwatch’s revelations that helped trigger this important inquiry. But in its aftermath, there is little to suggest that the EU’s bank has done anything to ensure that the public money it manages will not be misused.
Milestone bank summit in Belgrade a step towards protecting Balkan rivers, but greater transparency still needed
March 1, 2019
For immediate release. Belgrade – The ‘Save the Blue Heart of Europe’ campaign [1] gave a cautious welcome to a first-of-its-kind summit between the financial sector and green activists, where a roundtable about the role of banks in the destruction of Balkan rivers by hydropower dams was centre stage.
The EBRD Country Strategy for Azerbaijan
February 26, 2019
As the EBRD reviews its Country Strategy for Azerbaijan, Civil society organisations approached the Board of Directors to share their concerns about the situation in the country and asked the Bank to be clear that funding should be linked to the perfor
New investigation in Kresna gorge reveals another major breach of law
February 15, 2019
An independent investigation by a Bulgarian TV channel bTV discovered progressing construction works in the Kresna gorge area even though the official procurement procedure is still ongoing.
Changing lives and doing no harm
February 8, 2019
“We invest in changing lives” is the slogan of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, whose investments in 2018 reached EUR 9.5 billion through 395 projects. Whether the change is for better depends on the bank’s environmental and human rights safeguards.
The EU’s bank downplayed climate risk in granting record loans to Europe’s largest fossil fuel project
February 7, 2019
Brussels – In a complaint lodged today with the European Investment Bank (EIB), civil society groups protest that the bank systematically underestimated the climate footprint of a fossil fuel mega project, the Southern Gas Corridor, which helped justify providing it with major financial support using EU public money.
Biodiversity offsetting and other problems of the ESIA of Amulsar gold project in Armenia
January 8, 2019
This report is a critical analysis, with regard to the impacts on biodiversity, of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) of the Amulsar Gold Project. Special attention has been paid to the biodiversity offsetting proposal for creation o
Social impacts of the Amulsar mine in Armenia
January 8, 2019
The Amulsar mine presents a number of considerable health and social risks to local communities, the tourism potential of the nearby Jermuk spa resort and the surrounding villages’ orchards, pastures and water supplies. The company Lydian Armenia prepa
Shuakhevi Compliance Review
December 12, 2018
In view of the considerable public resources invested in the Shuakhevi HPP project and in view of the negative impacts on local people’s safety and livelihoods, as well on local resources needed for sustainable development of the Adjara region and Geor
