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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.
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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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Rovinari unit 7, Romania
The Romanian Government has been negotiating for several years with the Chinese Government to build a new 600 MW unit at the lignite power plant in Rovinari, Gorj County. The new unit would be built on the site of Units 1 and 2, currently decommissioned. A new up and running plant would pollute the whole region for at least 40 more years, a coal plant’s average lifespan.
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Gacko II, Bosnia and Herzegovina
State-owned utility Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske, together with China Machinery and Engineering Corporation (CMEC) and Emerging Markets Power Fund, plans to build a new 350 MW lignite power plant in Gacko, near the town’s existing plant, and in December 2017 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed to move the project forward.
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Kamengrad lignite power plant, Bosnia-Herzegovina
An idea to build a power plant at the open-cast Kamengrad coal mine near Sanski Most in the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina has been around for years, but in 2017 it took a step forward with the November signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Energy China International and the Bosnia-Herzegovina construction supplier Lager d.o.o. for a 2 X 215 MW plant.
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Complaints to IFC and EBRD regarding their investments in MHP
Official document | 5 June, 2018 | Download PDFThe complaint alleges that since the start of MHP operations in Vinnytsia in 2010, continuous odor and dust from a significant and growing number of facilities and the application of manure on nearby fields has made local life untenable. MHP activities …
Chinese-financed coal projects in Southeast Europe
Briefing | 15 May, 2018 | Download PDFSeveral EU enlargement countries in the Western Balkans – as well as EU member states Romania and Greece – plan to build new lignite power plants. In contrast, the EU aims to decarbonise its energy sector by 2050, most EU countries no longer build new …
MHP stakeholder engagement
Briefing | 14 April, 2018 | Download PDFThese written comments on MHP stakeholder engagement follow a meeting between Bankwatch/NECU and MHP on 7 April 2017. Bankwatch and NECU welcomed the opportunity to meet MHP, as well as the company’s stated intention to improve the way it conducts impa …
Comments on the EBRD safeguard policies
Policy comments | 11 April, 2018 | Download PDFRelying on its experience in monitoring EBRD projects in recent years, Bankwatch re-assessed the EBRD Public Information Policy (PIP) and Environmental and Social Policy (ESP). EBRD Public Information Policy (PIP) 2014 General comments Specific comment …
Answer to the European Commission’s reply regarding The Best Laid Plans
Policy comments | 26 March, 2018 | Download PDF1. The EFSI regulation lists seven general objectives (sectors) open to funding: energy transport infrastructure and equipment research, development and innovation small, medium and small mid-cap companies information and telecommunication technology e …
Financing for hydropower in protected areas of southeast Europe: update
Study | 16 March, 2018 | Download PDFMultilateral development banks have supported no fewer than 82 hydropower projects across southeast Europe, including in protected areas. The study finds that the number of hydropower projects in the region that enjoy financial support from multilatera …
Financing energy efficiency in Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria
Briefing | 12 March, 2018 | Download PDFOne of the five closely related and mutually reinforcing dimensions of the Energy Union is represented by energy efficiency, whose importance has also been underlined in the ambitious Paris Agreement. As the Climate and Energy Framework has set an indi …
AIIB Public Information Policy
Policy comments | 5 March, 2018 | Download PDFWe share Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s genuine interest and vision that access to information holds the key to ensuring that stakeholders, project-affected people and the general public can provide meaningful inputs into the design and impleme …
Comments on the existing EBRD Energy Sector Strategy from 2013
Policy comments | 27 February, 2018 | Download PDFBankwatch reviewed the EBRD’s energy lending during the strategy period and used this lens to look at the text of the bank’s 2013 Energy Strategy: what needs to be continued and strengthened and what needs to be changed. The focus is on priority issues …
A Recipe for Success: Cookbook on Public Participation
Study | 13 February, 2018 | Download PDFExperiences from Visegrad 4 and Eastern Partnership countries
