Bankwatch blog

As pressures mount on western European banks to shore up capital ratios and with 2012 economic growth forecasts for Europe falling close to zero, officials from the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and several international financial institutions (IFIs) are meeting today in Vienna with regulators from CEE countries to discuss a second round of financial support for a fragile CEE banking sector.

On December 13, the EIB's Board of Directors is about to approve the institution’s new Transport Policy. This new document constitutes an upgrade of the older 2007 Transport Policy of the bank which tries to incorporate the EU’s progressive agenda on the prevention of climate change (documents such as the "Europe 2020 Strategy" and the "Roadmap for moving to a competitive low-carbon economy in 2050").

A study from the Czech Republic vividly confirms the positive economic impact of public support schemes for energy efficiency investments. The future Cohesion Policy can offer valuable stimuli for such schemes – if EU Member States set the right priorities now.

The Czech renewable energy industry last week received a strong blow from our very own Parliament which approved measures that will likely smother the sector in a bill ironically entitled the „Renewable energy sources support bill.”