Hundreds to protest against ArcelorMittal in Bosnia and Herzegovina
February 10, 2011
Hundreds of people are expected to attend a protest against illegal levels of air pollution from the local ArcelorMittal steelmill this Friday afternoon. The action has been organized through social media and is supported by local NGOs Dosta! and Zenica Eko-Forum.
CEE countries must demand binding targets for energy efficiency, say NGOs
February 3, 2011
Ahead of Friday’s European Council on Energy, CEE Bankwatch Network is urging political will from both the Hungarian EU Presidency and other central and eastern European heads of state to ensure binding targets for improving energy efficiency by 20 percent by the year 2020 if the bloc is to play its part in meeting climate targets under the Europe 2020 strategy.
New EU resource flagship must steer energy savings and resource potential for central and eastern Europe
January 27, 2011
Reacting to yesterday’s communication by the European Commission of its ‘resource-efficient Europe – flagship initiative under the Europe 2020 strategy’, CEE Bankwatch Network is welcoming the agenda set by Brussels to ensure the sustainable use of raw materials, their extraction and processing but warns that this rhetoric must translate into action if the EU and particularly new Member States are to meet ambitious energy and climate change objectives.
EBRD undermines Slovenian climate targets and governmental review with 200 million euros for dirty coal project
January 14, 2011
Ljubljana, Slovenia — Campaign groups today lambasted the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) signature of a 200 million euros loan for the Sostanj thermal power plant in Slovenia [1], calling it a blatant affront to Slovenia’s long-term climate targets. The signing also fails to await the outcome of a governmental review of the controversial project, expected in mid-February.
Polish environmental agency rules in favour of biodiversity with New Year’s resolution to cancel airports flawed permitting
January 11, 2011
Warsaw, Poland — Campaign groups are applauding last week’s decision by the national General Directorate for Environmental Protection to revoke consent for the planned Tykocin regional airport in northeast Poland, a 125 million euros project slated to receive more than 70 percent of its financing from the EU’s Structural Funds.
Baseball bat attack hospitalises Khimki Forest activist, latest violence connected with controversial Moscow-St Petersburg motorway plans
November 4, 2010
Environmental and human rights activist Konstantin Fetisov of Khimki near Moscow was today assaulted near his house by unknown assailants wielding a baseball bat and is now in a serious condition in hospital.
Bankwatch reaction on Commission’s new budget proposal No more excuses for clean energy budget holes
October 19, 2010
Reacting to today’s European Commission Communication on the forthcoming EU budget review for the 2014-2020 period, the public funds watchdog group CEE Bankwatch Network called for concerted Commission and member state commitment to boost EU-funded clean energy programmes in central and eastern Europe.
No public money for Nabucco – mega gas project a drain on clean energy, human rights and the environment, says Bankwatch
September 6, 2010
Budapest, Hungary — Reacting to today’s announcement by the Nabucco Consortium that international public banks are now officially commencing their appraisal of the EUR 7.9 billion (estimated) Nabucco gas pipeline project, watchdog group CEE Bankwatch Network called on the international financiers to reject what would be record European public finance for the project and instead to focus on the financing of clean energy in central and eastern Europe, particularly climate-friendly, job-boosting energy efficiency.
Civil society groups welcome cancellation of Slovak D1 motorway PPP
September 3, 2010
Friends of the Earth CEPA (Slovakia) and CEE Bankwatch Network applaud today’s cancellation [1] of the 9 billion euros public-private partnership (PPP) for the first phase of the D1 motorway in Slovakia and urged the new government to change the project’s routing to avoid damaging the Mala Fatra and Velka Fatra National Parks.
Khimki Forest movement leader violently detained in Moscow
August 4, 2010
Yevgenia Chirikova, the leader of the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest, has today been forcibly detained by police in Moscow immediately after a press conference on the persecution of activists opposing the construction of a motorway through the Khimki Forest just outside Moscow. [1] At the time of writing she has been released after several hours of interrogation, but urged to come to Khimki’s police station tomorrow for another round of questioning.
