From a grassroots to the international level …
We’re the largest network of grassroots, environmental and human rights groups in central and eastern Europe.
We monitor public finance institutions that are responsible for hundreds of billions of investments across the globe. The banks and funds we watch are often obscure but always important entities that function outside public scrutiny.
Together with local communities and other NGOs we work to expose their influence and provide a counterbalance to their unchecked power. 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.
CAMPAIGN AREAS
INSTITUTIONS WE MONITOR
OUR PROJECTS
After recovery towards cohesion
For the first time, the EU climate ambition is backed by an unprecedented financial package. The recovery and cohesion policy funds are planned to be two major components to accelerate the energy transition and reach towards climate neutrality by 2050. Bankwatch makes sure these EU funds support transformative and sustainable investments that advance energy consumption reduction, sustainable renewables and smart grids, ideally owned by communities.
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Komarnica hydropower plant, Montenegro
Planned by Montenegro’s state-owned electricity utility EPCG, the need for the Komarnica hydropower plant has never been proven.
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EU funds and biodiversity
Nature is in crisis. 81 per cent of habitats in the EU are in ‘poor condition’, and without swift action this will only become worse. We need systemic and wide-reaching action and investments to tackle biodiversity loss and help restore nature before it is too late. The EU has pledged 120 billion of the EU budget to be earmarked for biodiversity by 2026, offering enormous potential to restore and protect nature, providing this is properly invested. We are therefore campaigning to ensure these public funds work for – not against – nature.
Read morePublications
Bankwatch Mail 7
Bankwatch Mail | 7 April, 2001 | Download PDFIn this issue: EBRD: Language Apartheid * K2/R4, Bratislava Bridge * Motorway in Bulgaria * Public Transport in Hungary * Pulp Mill in Latvia * 10th birthday of Espoo Convention * New Study on IFIs in Russian Oil Sector
The Kumtor Gold Mine: Spewing Toxics From On High
Briefing | 4 September, 2000 | Download PDFLocated at almost 4,000 meters in the remote Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan, the Kumtor gold mine is believed to be the eighth largest gold field in the world. In 1998, a cyanide and sodium hypochloride spill associated with the mine reportedly left several people dead, hundreds seeking medical treatment, and thousands evacuated.
Bankwatch Mail 6
Bankwatch Mail | 7 May, 2000 | Download PDFIn this issue: Caspian Oil attracts EBRD *Kumtor Gold Mine: Two years later *K2/R4: Is the Blackmail Over? *The World Bank exploring new ways of dialogue with NGOs *The EBRD Knows that K2/R4 Is a Bad Project *CEE Training Opportunity on Globalisation *Decommissioning Fund: the Long-awaited Solution? *Prague 2000 Public Awareness Activities
Bankwatch Mail 5
Bankwatch Mail | 7 March, 2000 | Download PDFIn this “Jellyfish Issue – World Bank-NGO relations”: World Bank-NGO Relations: An Overview * A Crippled CAS In Slovakia * World Bank Aids CEZ to Fund Czech Nuclear Power * Ripples from the EIB Report Reach EIB Executive Suite * Prague 2000 Activities on the World Bank
The European Investment Bank: Accountable Only to the Market?
Study | 31 December, 1999 | Download PDFInternational financial institutions (IFIs) around the world have been asked in recent years to take on new policy issues, in an effort to improve their performance and transparency. Many have made a concerted effort to do so, although to mixed reviews. One important exception is the European Investment Bank (EIB), a secretive bank of the European Union (EU). When other IFIs are taking steps to address these policy issues, the EIB has shown the least amount of change.
