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.
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OUR PROJECTS
Destructive hydropower in southeast Europe
International commercial and public banks have been bankrolling a wave of hydropower projects across Southeast Europe that have damaged pristine rivers, including in protected areas. These financiers need to take their share of the responsibility and stop financing projects in sensitive areas.
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Buk Bijela dam and the Upper Drina cascade
Backed by a state-owned energy company, Buk Bijela has the necessary support and privileges to to be pushed forward in violation of the national legislation and international conventions.
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Shuakhevi hydropower plant, Georgia
Entrusted with leading Georgia towards energy independence, the Shuakhevi plant has achieved anything but. Long after its completion in June 2017, it is as far as it could be from fulfilling its promise for energy security. Instead, it managed to collect an impressive ‘portfolio’ of problems in a wide range of areas: from biodiversity, to gender impacts, to community relations.
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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
