Financing the post-2015 agenda – the problematic role of development banks
September 24, 2015
The heavy involvement of international financial institutions in the post-2015 development agenda raises serious questions for civil society around the world on whether the SDGs will manage to address the root causes of inequality, poverty and environmental degradation.
A Private Affair: Report shows how development finance institutions benefit the rich in Western countries
July 11, 2014
A new report shows how private western-based companies are benefiting from multilateral development banks’ support while governments and citizens in recipient countries are delegated to the sidelines.
Stuck in the market? 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall: what now for the EBRD?
May 14, 2014
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.
Shale gas in Poland: Government gags local opposition
April 12, 2013
Poland’s government is hasting to adopt liberal shale gas legislation. It tries to avoid any interference by factually excluding local opposition movements and by pre-empting the development of an EU wide framework on unconventional fossil fuels.
Good news: EBRD drops controversial Monsanto project
January 28, 2013
A potential cooperation between the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the agro-corporation Monsanto has thankfully not come to fruition. The case highlights the difficulties for a large development bank to reach farmers on the ground.
What goes around, comes around: Portugal’s debt boomerangs back on public-private partnerships
August 10, 2012
Europe’s anti-crisis measures include efforts to increase private investments in public infrastructure. Yet, a backlash against public-private partnerships in Portugal is a warning against putting too much faith in this approach.
Video: An EIB holiday
January 3, 2012
Baffled by an EIB loan to a holiday resort in Morocco, our friends from Counter Balance – Challenging the European Investment Bank had a closer look at the kind of development promoted there and came back with this wonderfully illustrative video.
The day renewable energy was killed in the Czech Republic
November 14, 2011
The Czech renewable energy industry last week received a strong blow from our very own Parliament which approved measures that will likely smother the sector in a bill ironically entitled the „Renewable energy sources support bill.”
Did the glimmer of gold blind the EBRD?
October 11, 2011
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has become a stakeholder in a company that is involved in gold mining in a UNESCO World Heritage site in Russia. Not only does this violate its own Environmental and Social Policy, but it also tells me a lot about the bank’s assessment of partner companies.
In times of crisis – Poland’s take on the Emperor’s New Clothes
September 9, 2011
Poland has made a worrying proposal on public private partnerships that could risk the future stability of European economies by turning a blind eye to future public debt. But the EU would do well to take the British example as an eye opener.
