Bankwatch in the media

One of the MEPs leading debate on the environmental earmarking of EU funds in the next budget will outline her views in the parliament's environment committee in early May. Rapporteur Jutta Haug issued three working documents last week.

The European Investment Bank – the European Union’s house bank – should lend more responsibly and more transparently, said the European Parliament on Thursday while assessing the bank’s annual activity report. But the capital increase at the EIB called for by the same European Parliament would hardly allow an already over-stretched institution to make such improvements. The bank would be better advised to work on improving management of current resources before rushing into a capital expansion.

Earmarking too large a chunk of the European Union’s cohesion funds for environmental projects in the 2014-2020 budget could be "detrimental", MEPs said.

For some people in Ukraine, it has been striking to see how little awareness and discussion there is in Europe about Kyiv's plans to expand the lifetime of 12 old nuclear reactors, right on the doorstep of the EU and most likely at European taxpayers’ expense, writes Iryna Holovko, an environmental campaigner in Ukraine.