EIB moves to curb intermediated hydropower financing
July 29, 2022
The EU’s house bank has recently updated its exclusion list, a document detailing what kind of projects it will not finance. This finally closes a long-standing loophole allowing ill-suited intermediaries to finance hydropower projects.
Riding roughshod over EU environmental and public consultation rules risks boomerang effect for renewables development
July 25, 2022
In an attempt to end reliance on Russian gas, the European Commission is seeking to speed up renewable energy deployment. But its proposals threaten to erode decades of hard-won EU environmental and public consultation achievements.
Eleventh hour for protected Kresna Gorge as Bulgaria presses on with destructive motorway
November 28, 2018
With construction advancing in Bulgaria’s Kresna gorge, discussion happening now at the Bern Convention in Strasbourg having taken on an increased sense of urgency.
Guest post: One beast with many heads – a hydropower hydra in the Balkans
December 21, 2017
A visit to six mountain rivers and nine small dams in Macedonia exposed similar problems with many of them.
Legal complaint lodged to save protected Bulgarian Gorge from destructive motorway
July 12, 2017
A controversial EU-funded motorway is allegedly already breaking EU nature laws. Its completion through the Kresna Gorge nature reserve would be catastrophic for protected animals and plants in the region. A legal complaint calls on the Commission to investigate breaches of EU law.
Illegal damage and threat of destruction of the Kresna Gorge, Bulgaria – full complaint
July 12, 2017
This complaint to the EU Commission was lodged to save the protected Bulgarian Kresna Gorge from a destructive motorway that received EU funding. It alleges that the construction of the controversial motorway is already breaking EU nature laws, and war
UPDATE: Danube dam-busting – Under the radar EU funds grab spotted in Slovakia
March 25, 2014
A highly problematic Danube dam project has found its way into the Slovak Operational Programme for the Cohesion Policy spending in the 2014-2020 period and has become a small scandal in the country.
The European Commission, an EBRD shareholder that should start acting like one
March 1, 2012
Recent Balkan hydro projects suggest the European Commission could make much better use of its shareholder role in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
