EU neighbourhood

No public money for mega-gas pipeline projects - Projects of Common Interest for gas imports will be harmful

Study | June 12, 2014

Projects aimed at increasing EU gas imports, included in the European Commission’s Projects of Common Interest (PCI) would surpass the five scenarios of the EC’s own Energy Roadmap 2050 which all foresee an overall decrease in gas imports. Additionally, they would support authoritarian regimes which repeatedly violate human rights and limit space for democratic expression.

Institution: EBRD, EIB

Theme: Energy & climate, Social & economic impacts

New mega gas pipelines redundant according to EU's own projections

June 12, 2014

The EU’s plans for large new gas import pipelines and LNG terminals to Europe, outlined in the European Commission’s October 2013 list of priority energy projects as well as in the May blueprint for energy security to be discussed during tomorrow’s Energy Council, are not only counter to the EU’s long-term climate goals but also unjustified according to the EC’s own demand forecast.

Institution: EBRD, EIB

Theme: Energy & climate, Social & economic impacts

Tags: Central Asia, EU neighbourhood

First court case against coal power plant construction in Serbia

June 2, 2014

Belgrade -- NGO CEKOR submitted a formal complaint in front of the Serbian national administrative court against the government’s decision to approve an Environmental Impact Assessment study for the construction of a new unit at the Kostolac B coal power plant. The complaint, in which the NGO exposes failings in the EIA process, is the first of its kind to reach Serbian courts.

Theme: Energy & climate

Tags: coal, Balkans, EU neighbourhood

When water mixes with coal - The impacts of the floods in Serbia on people living next to lignite mines

People living next to the Kolubara lignite mine in Serbia have suffered more under the floods due to the vicinity of the mine. Their demands for resettlement and compensation have now become more urgent than ever.

Tags: floods Kolubara lignite local communities mining photos pollution resettlement Serbia Balkans EU neighbourhood

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Energy & climate, Social & economic impacts

More repression, more money - Financing transition in Egypt

New cases of arbitrary repression against civil society happened in the run-up to the presidential elections in Egypt. A look at the loans so far approved by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development suggests that those in power have been more successful in receiving the bank’s support.

Tags: al-Sisi corruption democracy ECESR Egypt elections human rights military Morsi multinationals Muslim Brotherhood raid repression state-owned transition EU neighbourhood Southern Mediterranean

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Social & economic impacts

Ending fossil fuel support: NGO recommendations for OECD countries on their Export Credit Agencies

Briefing | May 27, 2014

According to data compiled by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), between 2007 and 2013 public financial institutions provided at least $55,7 billion in funding for coal projects abroad. The largest proportion of this comes from national Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) from OECD countries, which have provided at least $32 billion over this period or 58% of total support.

Theme: Energy & climate

El BERD apoyará a Kiev en las reformas necesarias para obtener financiación

May 20, 2014

Source: , La Vanguardia

El presidente del Banco Europeo de Reconstrucción y Desarrollo (BERD), Suma Chakrabarti, dijo hoy en Varsovia que la institución se involucrará en apoyar las reformas en Ucrania, después de que ayer firmase con el Gobierno de Kiev un pacto anticorrupción que acelerará los cambios en el país.

Institution: EBRD

Tags: EU neighbourhood

Balkan lynx stage protest at annual meeting of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

A delegation of 20 lynx from Mavrovo National Park in Macedonia today occupied a corridor in the Polish National Stadium in Warsaw, where the EBRD Annual General Meetings are taking place 14-15 May.

Their message: "EBRD, don't finance the Boskov Most dam, as it will destroy the forest in which we live and eventually kill us." The 20 delegates from Mavrovo Park constitute almost half of the little over 50 lynxes which still survive in the park today (the Balkan lynx is an endangered species).

Tags: Balkan lynx Boskov Most EBRD annual meeting hydropower Mavrovo national park protest Balkans EU neighbourhood

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Other harmful projects

Funny business at EBRD meeting: sustainability champion Garanti fancies coal

The Turkish Garanti Bank, one of the winners of the Sustainability Awards of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is among the main coal investors in Turkey.

Tags: award coal commercial bank EBRD annual meeting fail financial intermediary sustainability EU neighbourhood

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Energy & climate

Nuclear shadows - transparency failings persist with Ukrainian safety project

Bankwatch Mail | May 14, 2014

Twenty years of limited – if not downright poor – transitional progress has demonstrated the inability of European and global institutions to effectively impact development processes in Ukraine.

Institution: EBRD

Theme: Energy & climate, Social & economic impacts