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Financing mechanisms for community based sustainable energy projects in central and eastern Europe

Study | 22 March, 2014 | Download PDF

This expertise summarises the results of expert workshops and aims to contribute to the development of viable financing and investment schemes for Community Power to be introduced particularly in CEE countries in order to tackle financial barriers that prevent or delay the development of community-owned energy projects in the region.


Whose Energy Community? Treaty improvements urgently needed

Bankwatch Mail | 20 March, 2014 | Download PDF

The EU-backed Energy Community Treaty, signed in 2005 and comprising the western Balkan countries, Ukraine and Moldova, has been widely hailed as encouraging regional co-operation. It also sets a legislative framework for the signatories (also known as the contracting parties) that should contribute, along with the EU accession process, to addressing the environmental and social impacts of the energy sector. Indeed, examples of the Energy Community’s added value are its adoption of renewable energy targets in October 2012, as well as a requirement for power plants to comply with EU emissions limits.


Slovenia’s shoddy Šoštanj 6 busts the myth of cheap lignite power

Bankwatch Mail | 20 March, 2014 | Download PDF

Bankwatch has been monitoring and campaigning against the ill-conceived EBRD- and EIB-financed Unit 6 at Šoštanj in Slovenia for several years now. Yet the project never ceases to amaze with its myriad flaws and scandals – and the first few months of 2014 have been no exception.


Oil casts long shadow over local people in Albania

Bankwatch Mail | 20 March, 2014 | Download PDF

Local development and investments in resource extraction rarely go together hand in hand. Bankwatch’s Media coordinator David Hoffman reports back on a recent visit to the EBRD sponsored Patos Marinza oil field in Albania. The case provides valuable lessons for the current revision of the EBRD’s safeguard policies.


Three companies shortlisted for Montenegro lignite plant – but Pljevlja needs a clean-up, not more pollution

Bankwatch Mail | 20 March, 2014 | Download PDF

Pljevlja’s 210 MW lignite power plant, operating since 1982 in northern Montenegro, has caused controversy since the beginning of its lifetime. Even back in late ’70s Yugoslavia when the project was being planned, residents succeeded in pressing for the chimney to be taller than planned (250 metres instead of 200 metres) in an attempt to ensure that the plant’s pollution rose above the hills surrounding Pljevlja and dispersed further away.