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.
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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.
Read morePublications
Six reasons for not financing the Nenskra hydropower project in Georgia
Briefing | 5 December, 2017 | Download PDFThis briefing outlines the main issues with the Nenskra hydropower project shortly before both the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank will decide on financing the project.
Nenskra HPP poses possible threat to Georgian biodiversity hot spot
Briefing | 4 December, 2017 | Download PDFIn January 2016 the Georgian government decided to exclude from the Bern Convention’s candidate Emerald Site “Svaneti 1” all territories that are part of the valleys of the Nenskra and Nakra rivers which are relevant for the construction of the Nenksra …
Land lost but not forgotten
Study | 30 November, 2017 | Download PDFImpacts of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline on the land and livelihoods of farmers in Albania In May 2017, Bankwatch, together with the Albanian Helsinki Committee undertook a mission along the corridor of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline in Albania to talk to p …
Communities in Chuberi and Nakra, Georgia, address financiers of Nenskra hydropower plant
Advocacy letter | 23 November, 2017 | Download PDFIn this letter, communities affected by the Nenskra hydropower plant in Georgia, explain the project promoter’s inadequate engagement with locals and ask the international financial institutions to stop considering financing the project. More than 100 …
Comments on the EBRD’s draft Extractive Mining Industries Strategy for 2018-2022
Policy comments | 20 November, 2017 | Download PDFBankwatch’s comments focus on the following areas: Sustainability and the Circular Economy, Transparency Standards, Human Rights, Coal Mining and Climate, Diversification, Resilience and Integration. See also our comments on Thermal and coking coal in …
Thermal and coking coal in the EBRD’s draft Mining Strategy
Policy comments | 20 November, 2017 | Download PDFIn its new draft mining strategy, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development demonstrates that it is still ready to finance coal mining.
Doing the same thing and expecting different results?
Study | 10 November, 2017 | Download PDFAn analysis of the sustainability and transparency of the European Fund for Strategic Investments.
Guide: Eight steps for a just transition
Briefing | 2 November, 2017 | Download PDFJust transition is a development model based on locally designed public policies to create the context for a fair income and a decent life for all workers and communities affected by pollution reduction measures. This guide offers some pointers for ini …
Good project – bad implementation: MHP biogas
Briefing | 2 November, 2017 | Download PDFThe project MHP Biogas is currently under consideration for approval by the EBRD Board of Directors. The project covers the construction of the greenfield 10 MW biogas plant in Vinnitsa region of Ukraine. The biogas plant is sought to help solve the pr …
MHP: ‘Business as usual’ while communities suffer
Briefing | 29 September, 2017 | Download PDFThe massive loans by public banks for Ukraine’s monopolist poultry producer MHP have not brought the company’s performance and culture in line with the relevant EU and EBRD standards. Rural communities say that if it continues with ‘business as usual’, they face more violence and suppression.
