Home >> About Us >> Success stories

Success stories

Croatian coal plant bites the dust After five years of campaigning, plans for the Plomin C coal plant have been cancelled, creating space for Croatia's renewable potential. Croatian coal plant bites the dust
The EU's bank quits coal Through advocacy and concerted outreach, Bankwatch helped secure a climate-friendly energy policy of the European Investment Bank that all but eliminated its support for coal. Click to read how Bankwatch helped get coal out of the EIB's lending
Poland's glorious Rospuda Valley is saved from hosting a motorway A seven year struggle for the Rospuda Valley eventually led to the cancellation of the Rospuda road crossing and a more viable route for the Via Baltica expressway. Click here to read the story
Bankwatcher honoured with 'environmental Nobel Prize' Manana Kochladze received the prize in recognition of her campaign efforts to minimise the harmful effects of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline on local communities and the... Click to read the full story
Map of EU funding failures that’s being referenced by decision-makers The map of dubious EU funded projects has received wide media attention and decision makers have treated a project's inclusion on the map as a serious blemish. Click to read the full story
Policy engagement delivers for Indigenous Peoples The EIB and EBRD now require project promoters to ensure a free, prior and informed consent by affected people to any relocation. Click to read the full story


Since our founding in the mid-1990s, Bankwatch has been campaigning first and foremost to stop or change harmful or dubious investment projects funded by international public finance across central and eastern Europe. Concern for our region's environment and for the quality of people’s lives has been central to our thinking, strategising and efforts, and through alliances with both local communities and other non-governmental organisations we have helped secure positive changes on scores of projects.

Apart from individual projects, we also see the need to cut out environmentally and socially damaging investments at source – and that means advocating for more just and more sustainable policies to govern the lending practices of our target institutions.

This slideshow provides a selection of our successes that our analysis, on the ground research and our advocacy efforts have helped to bring about. (Click on the images to read the full success stories.)

Success stories

Our work has made a difference for people and the environment

Learn how