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Stuck in the market? 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall: what now for the EBRD?

Study | 14 May, 2014 | Download PDF

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.


Bankwatch Mail 59

Bankwatch Mail | 13 May, 2014 | Download PDF

Coinciding with the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, this issue examines how some of the EBRD’s transition recipes turned out almost 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In addition, controversies with current projects and recent policy revisions provide a rather grim outlook for what further transition will bring for old and new countries of operation of the EBRD.


The village of Junkovac near the Kolubara mine – neglected and destroyed

Briefing | 9 May, 2014 | Download PDF

The story of Junkovac in Serbia highlights systemic violations of human rights, neglect and wrong doings in the lignite mining sector that have not changed since the involvement of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development began in 2000. One of most recent cases of violations of human and property rights involves the illegal dumping of overburden from the mines at the Junkovac site that for years has been a threat to the properties and lives of hundreds of people in the nearby village.


Does European financing facilitate the implementation of the Espoo convention in nuclear-energy related activities? Experience from Ukraine.

Briefing | 9 May, 2014 | Download PDF

Public finance can play a role in ensuring nuclear safety and the transparency and accountability of government decisions related to nuclear energy by encouraging governments to fully apply Espoo procedures at earlier stages of the programme or plan and to provide more information about loan conditionalities. However, only a limited positive effect has been seen in Ukraine due in part to a lack of transparency by the financial institutions and to the selective application of convention requirements.


More for pigs than people: experience with Danosha’s expansion in Ukraine

Briefing | 7 May, 2014 | Download PDF

In 2013 the EBRD approved a loan of EUR 35 million to Danosha, a Ukrainian industrial pig farming company. Categorised as ‘B’ by the bank, the project didn’t require an Environmental Impact Assessment or public participation. Yet experience shows that Danosha’s activities are associated with adverse environmental and social impacts, and the situation has been worsened by the fact that the company does not publish any information about its impacts on the environment, public health and safety at its farms.