Hoyer and out: New EIB president muddles through European parliament hearing
October 8, 2012
With the European Investment Bank having recently postponed the annual face-to-face dialogue with NGOs that the bank’s former president Philippe Maystadt initiated in autumn 2011, it was good to see new EIB president Werner Hoyer being put on the spot in September by MEPs during a hearing at the Europeam parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.
Croatian coal power plans advancing despite legal violations and economic unfeasibility
October 8, 2012
It has been a busy time of late for the planned EUR 800 million, 500 MW Plomin C coal power plant. The Croatian government is pressing ahead with the project under the assumption that it will – along with the equally controversial EBRD-financed Ombla hydropower plant – save Croatia’s ailing economy. Yet it is far from certain who will actually participate in the project, let alone finance it.
More questions asked about EBRD and EIB transparency
October 8, 2012
The European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have been awarded some of the worst transparency scores for international finance institutions in this year’s Aid Transparency Index, published in early October by the campaign group Publish What You Fund.
Czech transport investments going nowhere fast
October 8, 2012
Investments in transport infrastructure, particularly in the road sector, in the Czech Republic are stark reminders of wider failures in the country’s decision making that have left public confidence in national officialdom at all time lows. Some of these investments have also lead to hefty penalties being imposed by the European Commission. With planning underway for future EU funding in the Czech transport sector, now is not the time for the Commission to take its eye off the ball.
EU funds to make Latvia the greenest country in the world? A vision still on paper
October 8, 2012
This summer Latvia’s minister for environment and regional development, along with some other like-minded politicians, appeared to kick-start a green revolution by proposing to set a ‘green vision’ for the small Baltic country’s National Development Plan (NDP) for the 2014-2020 period.
EU money well spent – New map of projects
October 8, 2012
Bankwatch, Friends of the Earth Europe and WWF have collaborated to produce a new map that illustrates some of the best practice Cohesion policy investments in infrastructure projects to be realised during the 2007-13 financial period.
EU budget debate: Some one trillion euro questions and answers
October 8, 2012
The negotiations over the future EU budget for 2014-20 are well underway now, often being described under the epitaph ‘EU budget battle’. We tolerate no blood-letting on the pages of Bankwatch Mail. So Keti Medarova-Bergstrom, Senior Policy Analyst at the Institute for European Environmental Policy, and Pawel Swidlicki, Research Analyst at Open Europe, instead put their heads together to identify why and where EU budgetary spending has got it wrong in the past and propose how roughly one trillion euros can better serve Europe’s environment, economy and people in the next funding period. European decision-makers – lay down your budget weapons and listen!
New study: Clean energy investments will pay off at scale
October 8, 2012
How much investment money is needed to create 60,000 jobs, and how much to save half a million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually? These are the kinds of calculations that a new Bankwatch study has been making with an eye on the uses of the EU’s future Cohesion policy funds in central and eastern Europe.
Latest waste plans set to keep Sofia bottom of Europe’s waste pile
October 8, 2012
In recent years Sofia municipality has been looking for a modern waste management solution, but all in the wrong direction. At the end of 2011, the Bulgarian capital submitted its latest application for funding to the European Commission. Regrettably, this featured a capital-intensive waste treatment facility and virtually no measures directed at higher levels of the so-called ‘waste hierarchy’ – namely prevention and reuse.
Bankwatch contest
October 8, 2012
Entries have started arriving at Bankwatch Towers with concepts and ideas for sustainable, community-based projects – the kind of projects that we think should be receiving much more support from the EU budget. If you live in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Latvia, Hungary, Macedonia or Slovakia, send us your ideas for a chance to realise them with a 3,000 euro prize.
