EU neighbourhood

A project financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in the Odessa region of Ukraine has this week been the scene of clashes between 300 police officers and villagers resisting the routing of high voltage power lines through their village. The EUR 25.8 million Odessa High Voltage Grid Upgrade project is being implemented by Ukraine's national electricity company Ukrenergo in violation of agreements with the EBRD, the international public development bank and backer of the project.

A major power transmission project in Ukraine that seeks a EUR 175 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to facilitate the export of electricity from Europe's biggest nuclear power plant across protected nature sites in the south of Ukraine is violating the EBRD's procedures on public consultations, according to Bankwatch member group National Ecological Centre of Ukraine (NECU).

Residents of Rustavi, Georgia's third city, have today submitted an official complaint to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) concerning the potentially disastrous construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline only 250 metres from a settlement of high-rise buildings. [1] The residents are taking this step following a prolonged period of uncertainty for them and their homes, a lack of information and response from officials in Georgia and violent intimidation from the regional police force.