We’ve just sent you an email to confirm your email address.
Please click on the link in this email to confirm your subscription. If it does not arrive, check your spam folder or contact our web editor. She should be able to help.
In the meantime, check out our latest news and project updates.
Thank you for subscribing!
INSTITUTIONS WE MONITOR

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
Established to promote transition to market-oriented economies in the countries of central and eastern Europe and Central Asia, the EBRD’s lending often fails to benefit the people in these countries and regularly prioritises carbon-intensive and environmentally damaging development.
Read more
OUR PROJECTS

Free-flowing rivers in Central Asia
Central Asian rivers are under threat from hundreds of new hydropower plants. We have created a map of the key rivers in the region that need urgent protection and are calling on the development banks to stop their destruction.
Read more
LATEST UPDATES

Montenegro’s stop-start spatial plan set to greenlight harmful hydro projects
Montenegro is touted as the lead EU accession candidate these days, but it’s unfortunately far from ready. The country’s hotly debated new national spatial plan is a case in point, plagued by delays, legal breaches, opacity and all-round low quality.
Read more

European Investment Bank (EIB)
With a lending portfolio of EUR 72 billion (2010) the European Investment Bank (EIB) is one of the world’s biggest public lending institution – bigger even than the World Bank.
Read more

Emerald Network in the Western Balkans
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia are required to establish a sufficient number of Emerald Network sites as signatories to the Bern Convention. However, since 2011, not a single new site has been proposed and many stunning rivers remain unprotected. The #EmeraldForRivers campaign aims to support governments in expanding the Emerald Network.
Read more

Western Balkan governments still complicit in deadly coal pollution – new report
In 2024, Western Balkan governments’ chronic law enforcement failures allowed sulphur dioxide (SO2) pollution from the region’s antiquated coal power plants to exceed legal limits by six times, according to the seventh edition of Bankwatch’s Comply or Close report, published today (1). Dust and nitrogen oxides (NOx) pollution from coal plants also continued to exceed legal limits.
Read more

A new budget for a new Europe
For the European Union and its Member States to become more sustainable societies, the EU’s financial resources have to be spent towards consuming less energy and using resources more efficiently.
Read more

Turnu Măgurele – Nikopol Hydraulic Structures Assembly on the Danube river, Romania and Bulgaria
The project, if built, would not only devastate critical habitats, leading to the potential extinction of species such as the Danube sturgeons, but also displace local communities, disrupt existing investments, and violate several EU environmental directives.
Read more

Landmark deal ends 28-year Bulgaria motorway dispute with agreement to protect Kresna Gorge
28 years since the Struma motorway project in Bulgaria started, the Save Kresna Gorge coalition, Road Infrastructure Agency and Ministry of Environment and Water have reached a landmark agreement to implement the final section of the motorway outside the Kresna Gorge.
Read more