Publications

Macedonia’s Mavrovo national park is the largest and richest national park in the country and home to the critically endangered Balkan Lynx. The Macedonian government, however, has plans to also make Mavrovo the home for two large and around 20 small hydro power plants. Coul…

Western Balkan countries have ambitious plans to increase their electricity generation over the next years. But what will happen if they all become a regional energy hub? Will there be a demand for all the available electricity?

Earlier this year, Serbian media reported that the EBRD was considering providing a new EUR 200 million loan for the financial restructuring of the state-owned electric utility power company of Serbia, EPS. The EBRD Director for Serbia, Mateo Patrone, was quoted by B92.net s…

In July 2013 the EBRD approved its second loan in Tunisia, to Serinus Energy. With the EBRD investment portfolio in Tunisia standing at the end of 2014 at EUR 212 million the Serinus Energy loan represents roughly 25 percent of all EBRD loans in Tunisia to date and is the on…

The project involves the construction of a new section between Ohrid and Pestani on the A3 express ‘Kosel’ to the Albanian border crossing at Ljubanishta. The new 12.5 kilometre section is at a higher elevation than the existing coastal road and towns and will pass through t…

The Georgian Ministry of Environment has commissioned an external review of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) of the Nenskra hydropower plant before issuing its ecological expertise opinion which is a prerequisite for a construction permit. This review in…

The EBRD has denied its role in enabling Ukraine’s ageing units to operate beyond their design lifetime. It has also claimed that through the loan it has important leverage over its client Energoatom to help ensure a proper level of nuclear safety and the compliance with Ukr…

In 2013 Winstar Tunisia, a subsidiary of Serinus Energy, obtained a USD 60 million loan from the EBRD to develop four oil and gas fields in southern Tunisia. In March 2015, Bankwatch met with local authorities, civil society representatives and labour unions in the two south…

Following earlier publications about the Boskov Most project’s irreversible impact on nature, this paper provides an overview of the most recent developments concerning the planned HPPs in the Mavrovo national park.

Since 2011 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has provided USD 210.5 million to three greenfield hydropower projects (HPP) in Georgia – Paravani, Dariali and Shuakhevi. Instead of bringing improvements on the ground and environmental standards that are on p…

Europe talks of diversifying energy supplies from Russia by building a set of pipelines from the shores of Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea to Italy. But the EU’s dependency on Azerbaijan for fossil energy fuels repression and feeds the authoritarian Aliyev regime. All the while, Eu…

The assessment below covers the hard coal fired Large Combustion Plants exceeding 300MWth included in the draft national emissions reduction plan submitted by Ukraine at the 36th Permanent High Level Group meeting of the Energy Community in Vienna.