EIB must tighten oversight of Georgia’s East–West Highway projects amid authoritarian crackdown
October 26, 2026
Georgia has been in authoritarian freefall since spring 2024. In response, the EIB, in line with the EU’s position, has not issued any new sovereign loans to the country. However, the Bank still holds a significant active portfolio there, including the East-West Highway road projects. In this brief we document several of the environmental and social costs that the Bank has failed to account for.
Dighomi Meadows: An uncertain future for Tbilisi’s last floodplain forest
October 19, 2026
Dighomi Meadows is the last surviving floodplain forest in Tbilisi. A refuge for otters, kingfishers, pond turtles and more than 40 other species protected by the Bern Convention, it was meant to be restored under a rehabilitation strategy drawn up in 2024 with support from the Asian Development Bank.
Georgia’s East–West and North–South road projects: The billion-dollar infrastructure gambles that should make the ADB think twice
April 29, 2026
The East–West Highway and the North–South Corridor – two of Georgia’s most ambitious road projects supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – have had devastating social, environmental and cultural impacts.
Fallout and failures: EIB’s East–West Highway investments in Georgia amid authoritarian takeover
October 17, 2025
The EIB’s massive EUR 1 billion highway investment in Georgia has proved disastrous for impacted communities due to the country’s authoritarian turn and chronic project mismanagement.
Highway of injustice: How EIB-financed East–West road projects in Georgia impact local communities
October 13, 2025
In 2021, the European Investment Bank approved EUR 106.7 million in funding for two major highway projects in southern Georgia. Field research revealed significant social and environmental issues in the affected municipalities.
EBRD’s toxic bond with Indorama: Funding polluter in Georgia’s shrinking democracy
September 30, 2025
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) continues to back one of its most controversial clients in one of Europe’s most troubled democracies. Human rights, labour laws, and the environment are all at stake.
Bypass: the hidden social toll of Georgia’s East-West Highway on its towns and villages
May 5, 2025
Supported by international development banks and promoted as a strategic corridor linking Asia to Europe, Georgia’s East-West highway is central to the country’s ambitions of becoming a regional transit hub. With a price tag of EUR 1.2 billion, much of which is financed through loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Investment Bank (EIB), and the World Bank (WB), the highway construction project was framed as a symbol of progress, promising speed, connectivity and economic growth.
Georgia’s democratic future at stake: Russian-style ‘foreign agents’ bill threatens civil society and independent media
May 27, 2024
On 3 April 2024, Georgia’s ruling party revived the controversial ‘Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence’, which labels independent media and civil society groups as foreign agents. The move, coming just over a year after initial proposals were dropped, has sparked widespread protests once again.
Joint civil society letter to the EBRD President on Georgia’s draft law on Transparency of Foreign Influence
May 27, 2024
More than 30 international and national civil society organisations have joined the call to the President of the EBRD, Odile Renaud-Basso, to condemn the Foreign Agents Law, which is an attack on civil society and independent media and risks jeopardising their activities and the success of business operations in Georgia.
Statement by Bankwatch’s Executive Director on the shrinking space for civil society in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and other EBRD’s countries of operation
May 13, 2024
With the recent adoption of the “foreign representatives” law in Kyrgyzstan and a similar “foreign influence” bill awaiting final approval in the Georgian parliament, civic space continues to shrink in the EBRD’s countries of operations.
