Stuck in the market? 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall: what now for the EBRD?
May 14, 2014
Harsh, embedded economic realities such as widespread, high unemployment across central and eastern Europe, as well as the discernible trend of democratic retrenchment in several EBRD recipient countries, are resulting in very mixed feelings about the transition process in this year of important anniversaries. This new analysis 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.
Proposed EU loan would make Tunisia’s debt problems worse, say CSOs
March 28, 2014
– MEPs to vote on new loan in April. – Tunisia is already paying more to its Western creditors than it receives in loans and grants, and almost all of the new loan would be used for debt repayments. Civil society groups from Tunisia and Europe are urging the European Parliament to concentrate on debt relief instead of voting through a EUR 300 million loan to Tunisia, arguing that this will only add to the country’s huge existing debt burden.
European Development Bank: Backward Step on Rights – Draft Policy Would Weaken Protection
March 5, 2014
(London) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) new draft Environment and Social Policy would fail to weed out abusive development projects, seven human rights and bank watchdog organizations said today in a joint statement. The bank’s consultation on the draft policy closes on March 5, 2014. It then has an opportunity to revise the policy before sending it to the bank’s board for approval in the coming months.
The EIB’s double standard for human rights in Ukraine and Egypt
February 24, 2014
While drawing concrete consequences from the violence that happened in Ukraine, the European Investment Bank seems to be unmindful of the ongoing human rights abuses and killings in Egypt.
GMOs, water grab and ice cream for the masses – the EBRD gets involved with Nestlé Egypt
February 13, 2014
Update: The EBRD clarified in its correspondence with Baby Milk Action that its loan will not be used to finance infant nutrition.
Letter to EBRD re potential funding of coal power projects in Egypt
January 29, 2014
Civil society letter: EBRD’s political mandate and value added in Egypt doubtful
January 27, 2014
With this letter 14 organisations from the MENA region and Europe bemoan the lack of clear purpose and effectiveness of the EBRD’s democratic principles that are being undermined by the bank’s moves towards making Egypt a full country of operations despite having significant concerns about the state’s conformity with these principles.
Is Egypt just stuck in transition or heading away from democracy? Considerations for the EBRD
January 10, 2014
Six months after the Egyptian army deposed Egypt’s first freely elected president, the weak democratic signals by the authorities are overshadowed by widespread repression. How can the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development possibly help under these circumstances? Or put differently: Will the limited benefits to the country’s private sector from EBRD engagement really be enough to outweigh the harm done by the bank’s support for an undemocratic regime?
Letter regarding EBRD operations in Egypt despite continued human rights violations
December 23, 2013
Prompted by gross human rights violations in Egypt this letter asks for clarification how the EBRD can continue to operate in Egypt even though the EBRD’s mandate states that the bank operates in “countries committed to and applying the principles of multiparty democracy, pluralism and market economics” and its continued operations in Egypt therefore amount to a blatant violation of its commitments as a public institution.
Litmus test for EBRD rhetoric on democracy with Egyptian oil project
December 19, 2013
On December 18 the EBRD board of directors approved a loan of USD 50 million to finance a project aimed at the expansion of oil operations and reducing gas flaring in Egypt. Yet the tenuous political situation in the country continues to raise concerns about the bank’s ability to make a positive contribution towards the democratic process, and whether it should be investing there at all.