Balkans

The Ohrid-Peshtani expressway project - financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development via a EUR 160 million loan for the National Roads Programme - involves the construction of a new section on the A3 express to the Albanian border. The new 12.5 kilometre section is planned to pass through the Galicica national park - a rare and important natural site with
abundant biodiversity, that was listed as an emerald site (a future Natura 2000
site) and was designated in 2014 part of UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

In October 2015 the independent Project Complaint Mechanism (PCM) of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development found that the bank breached its environmental and social policy with regards to safeguarding the rights of communities impacted by mining operations of the Serbian state energy company EPS. The EBRD responded by requiring EPS to develop “an overall Resettlement Framework which will apply to all of its activities” and by committing to monitor the implementation of the plan.

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This report examines a selection of cases monitored by CEE Bankwatch Network and its partners in recent years and highlights some of the weaknesses observed in the EBRD’s approach to environmental, social, democracy and development issues.

On 15 April 2016 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will mark its 25th anniversary. This opportunity should kick-start a debate about what the London-based public bank has achieved since it started operations in 1991 and to reflect on its future.