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
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 more
Dabrova Dolina hydropower plant, Croatia
A harmless-sounding mill conversion project on Croatia’s stunning river Mrežnica is a textbook example of how even small hydropower plants can damage protected areas. It also exemplifies the lack of transparency and oversight of investments that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development channelled through commercial bank intermediaries.
Read more
Belgrade incinerator public private partnership (PPP), Belgrade, Serbia
The planned Belgrade waste incinerator, being considered for financing by the EBRD, EIB and IFC, is incompatible with waste prevention and recycling targets and endangers the already precarious livelihoods of the 12,000 people waste-picking in the city. The project’s environmental and social impact assessment fails to resolve numerous issues.
Read morePublications
Shuakhevi Compliance Review
Official document | 12 December, 2018 | Download PDFIn view of the considerable public resources invested in the Shuakhevi HPP project and in view of the negative impacts on local people’s safety and livelihoods, as well on local resources needed for sustainable development of the Adjara region and Geor
Failing Better or Climate Success?
Briefing | 10 December, 2018 | Download PDFAll the shareholders of the EIB have ratified the Paris Agreement, and the bank itself has claimed during the One Planet Summit in New York that it will align all its activities with the Paris Agreement by 2020. As President Hoyer put it, ‘I am confide
Time for the EU’s bank to lead on the clean energy transition
Briefing | 7 December, 2018 | Download PDFAs world finance paces up to adapt to the global fight against climate change, one main player is lagging behind: the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union’s bank.
Heroes of Just Transition
Study | 7 December, 2018 | Download PDFOn Dec. 5, during the side event ‘Local communities build a post-coal future’ at the COP24 in Katowice, Bankwatch launched its publication ‘Heroes of Just Transition’, featuring seven stories from coal communities around central and eastern Europe, the
Submission to the EBRD strategy for Turkmenistan
Briefing | 7 December, 2018 | Download PDFDevelopments in Turkmenistan do not demonstrate commitments of the authorities to apply the political principles of the Article 1 of the Agreement Establishing the Bank. Intergovernmental organisations and CSO sources describe situation in Turkmenistan
