ECAs go to market
February 5, 2018
Between 2015 and 2017, Finance & Trade Watch and Bankwatch, together with its national partners researched export credit agencies (ECAs) in seven countries of the European Union (Austria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovak
Pyromaniacs in Budapest want to burn EU funds in new waste incinerator
December 22, 2017
With its plans to build a new waste incinerator in Budapest with EU funding support, Hungary’s government not only ignores the opportunity to make it’s cities cleaner and healthier, but also piles up costs its citizens will have to pay in the future.
Energy lending at the EBRD: Fossil fuels up, renewables down
December 11, 2017
What’s going on with the Green Economy Transition at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development?
An experiment with EU funded sustainable transport
December 5, 2017
A train ride offers time for reflecting on how the EU budget can be put to use for the common good.
Silesian coal – a quiet exit
November 27, 2017
In Upper Silesia, Poland’s main coal region, it is difficult to find anyone who still believes that coal has a future. The region needs help in dealing with the environmental fallout from decades of a coal-centred economy and a platform to debate and define its destiny.
Bulgarian gold in offshore paradise linked to European public lender
November 21, 2017
The profits of the richest Bulgarian gold mine are “optimised” through several Caribbean offshore companies and a Dutch cooperative. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is one of the shareholders.
Comments on the EBRD’s draft Extractive Mining Industries Strategy for 2018-2022
November 20, 2017
Bankwatch’s comments focus on the following areas: Sustainability and the Circular Economy, Transparency Standards, Human Rights, Coal Mining and Climate, Diversification, Resilience and Integration. See also our comments on Thermal and coking coal in
Thermal and coking coal in the EBRD’s draft Mining Strategy
November 20, 2017
In its new draft mining strategy, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development demonstrates that it is still ready to finance coal mining.
Europe’s energy citizens are on the rise – if we let them
November 6, 2017
Small-scale renewable energy sources are being built all over Europe. Examples from the Czech Republic show that their success depends on adjusting them to the local environment and making sources for financing, such as EU funding, more accessible.
MHP: ‘Business as usual’ while communities suffer
September 29, 2017
The massive loans by public banks for Ukraine’s monopolist poultry producer MHP have not brought the company’s performance and culture in line with the relevant EU and EBRD standards. Rural communities say that if it continues with ‘business as usual’, they face more violence and suppression.