From a grassroots to the international level …
We investigate the impacts of public finance, work with affected communities and local organisations across the world and help them protect their rights and livelihoods. We make sure their stories are being told in Europe’s power centers.
We regularly meet representatives of the institutions we monitor and we’re in Brussels, too, doing our bit to make Europe a fairer, cleaner and sustainable place.
Alternative news
We expose the risks of international public finance and bring critical updates from the ground.
We believe that the billions of public money should work for people and the environment.
FOCUS AREAS
INSTITUTIONS WE MONITOR
OUR PROJECTS
Boskov most hydropower plant, North Macedonia
Boskov Most was one of 18 hydropower greenfield projects planned by the North Macedonian government in the Mavrovo National Park. After five years of campaigning, we convinced the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development about the folly of this project and to cancel its EUR 65 million loan. Without its major source of funding, the project lost steam and was discontinued.
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Kresna gorge / Struma motorway, Bulgaria
The Struma motorway is tragically emblematic of an EU-funded project that has wrought havoc on European biodiversity and the wishes of local communities. In spite of two decades of protest by civil society and citizens, part of the Struma motorway section is planned directly through the Kresna gorge, a Natura 2000 site and Bulgaria’s richest biodiversity hotspot.
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Krapska Reka small hydropower plant, Macedonia
Loopholes in the EBRD’s due diligence, together with a lack of assessment and monitoring by Macedonia’s local and central government, has proven to be a lethal combination for the country’s rivers. A prime example is the Krapska Reka small hydropower project. The authorities’ failure to recognise the location as part of the proposed Jakupica National Park, Emerald area and a future Natura 2000 site, on top of poor mitigation measures and construction practices, have caused irreversible damage to this small river valley.
Read morePublications
State Capture: A case study about natural gas exploitation and transportation in Romania
Study | 17 October, 2019 | Download PDFAt a time when public calls for tackling the causes of the climate crisis are growing, Romania’s gas industry has been expanding, courtesy of the Parliament and international financial institutions.This report, by Bankwatch Romania, finds that much of
Letter: It’s time to stand firm and go Fossil Free
Advocacy letter | 7 October, 2019 | Download PDFBankwatch and over 70 other civil society groups have written to President of the European Investment Bank Werner Hoyer, members of the bank’s board of directors as well as the incoming President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, and its
Western Balkans hydropower: who pays, who profits?
Study | 25 September, 2019 | Download PDFIn the last decade, a wave of hydropower construction in the Western Balkans has caused ever-increasing public outcry. Large hydropower projects have long caused public resistance, but the mushrooming of smaller plants of less than 10 megawatts (MW) in
The transformation action plan for the Slovakia’s Upper Nitra coal region
Study | 24 September, 2019 | Download PDFThe aim of this study is to describe the process by which local communities participated in theTransformation Action Plan of Coal Region Upper Nitra and to propose concrete steps towards thebetter integration of the local communities in order to achiev
Just transition in Hunedoara: economic diversification in a fair and sustainable manner
Study | 23 September, 2019 | Download PDFNGOs Greenpeace and Bankwatch Romania launched a new report outlining scenarios for the post-coal development of Romania’s best known coal region, Jiu Valley, highlighting job growth and economic development without coal is very much possible in the re
