First court case against coal power plant construction in Serbia
June 2, 2014
Belgrade — NGO CEKOR submitted a formal complaint in front of the Serbian national administrative court against the government’s decision to approve an Environmental Impact Assessment study for the construction of a new unit at the Kostolac B coal power plant. The complaint, in which the NGO exposes failings in the EIA process, is the first of its kind to reach Serbian courts.
When water mixes with coal – The impacts of the floods in Serbia on people living next to lignite mines
May 30, 2014
People living next to the Kolubara lignite mine in Serbia have suffered more under the floods due to the vicinity of the mine. Their demands for resettlement and compensation have now become more urgent than ever.
More repression, more money – Financing transition in Egypt
May 27, 2014
New cases of arbitrary repression against civil society happened in the run-up to the presidential elections in Egypt. A look at the loans so far approved by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development suggests that those in power have been more successful in receiving the bank’s support.
Ending fossil fuel support: NGO recommendations for OECD countries on their Export Credit Agencies
May 27, 2014
According to data compiled by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), between 2007 and 2013 public financial institutions provided at least $55,7 billion in funding for coal projects abroad. The largest proportion of this comes from national Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) from OECD countries, which have provided at least $32 billion over this period or 58% of total support.
El BERD apoyará a Kiev en las reformas necesarias para obtener financiación
May 20, 2014
El presidente del Banco Europeo de Reconstrucción y Desarrollo (BERD), Suma Chakrabarti, dijo hoy en Varsovia que la institución se involucrará en apoyar las reformas en Ucrania, después de que ayer firmase con el Gobierno de Kiev un pacto anticorrupción que acelerará los cambios en el país.
Balkan lynx stage protest at annual meeting of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
May 15, 2014
A delegation of 20 lynx from Mavrovo National Park in Macedonia today occupied a corridor in the Polish National Stadium in Warsaw, where the EBRD Annual General Meetings are taking place 14-15 May. Their message: “EBRD, don’t finance the Boskov Most dam, as it will destroy the forest in which we live and eventually kill us.” The 20 delegates from Mavrovo Park constitute almost half of the little over 50 lynxes which still survive in the park today (the Balkan lynx is an endangered species).
Funny business at EBRD meeting: sustainability champion Garanti fancies coal
May 14, 2014
The Turkish Garanti Bank, one of the winners of the Sustainability Awards of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is among the main coal investors in Turkey.
Nuclear shadows – transparency failings persist with Ukrainian safety project
May 14, 2014
Twenty years of limited – if not downright poor – transitional progress has demonstrated the inability of European and global institutions to effectively impact development processes in Ukraine.
EBRD transition role in the spotlight again
May 14, 2014
New analysis from CEE Bankwatch Network of how the EBRD conducts its financing and economic advisory activities finds serious deficiencies in the bank’s overall ‘market-oriented’ approach and catalogues a range of startling EBRD interventions in central and eastern Europe (CEE) and further afield that should prompt deeper examination of the bank’s promotional mantra “We invest in changing lives”.
Heavy on the process – EBRD review of governance policies may disappoint many
May 14, 2014
The EBRD’s board of directors is expected, on the eve of the bank’s annual meeting in Warsaw, to approve new ‘good governance’ policies that will have significant bearing on the institution’s future activities. The EBRD’s Environmental and Social Policy, its Public Information Policy and the Rules of Procedure for the EBRD Project Complaints Mechanism have been the feature of multi-stakeholder consultations across the EBRD’s regions of operation in 2013 and into 2014.
