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The European Investment Bank and climate action 2013-2015

The European Investment Bank’s lending for climate action between 2013 and 2015 shows that further structural changes are needed to align the bank’s portfolio with the objectives of the Paris agreement.

The Paris Agreement is a wake up call for the EU's house bank to realign its investment strategy

The European Investment Bank (EIB) must adopt new directives and operating principles to play a meaningful role in realising the EU's goal of a decarbonised and resource efficient economy, say CEE Bankwatch Network and Counter Balance ahead of the bank's annual meeting during the EU finance ministers' Council this Wednesday, May 25.

Time for Europe to stop supporting Ukraine's risky nuclear power sector

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Three decades after Chernobyl, nuclear power remains a mainstay of Ukrainian energy supply. Despite persistent safety problems, the Ukrainian government has approved lifetime extensions for four of its 15 nuclear units since 2010, and two more could be greenlighted later this year. What is more, Ukraine’s nuclear sector survives in part thanks to European support. The EU needs to stop supporting Kiev’s risky nuclear energy programme.


No security for Europe from the Southern Gas Corridor

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With an ownership structure heavily influenced by Azerbaijan, the European Commission’s flagship energy project may end up being a costly piece of infrastructure that does not increase Europe’s energy security but offers a tool for political leverage to the authoritarian Aliyev regime.


Development banks under pressure over support for Ukrainian agribusiness firm

Source: Emma Rumney, Public Finance International

Campaigners are today challenging the investment of public funds in a poultry farming giant, which they say is causing environmental damage to rural communities in Ukraine.

Ohrid - Peshtani expressway project, Macedonia

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.

The problems with industrial chicken producer MHP's expansion in Ukraine

MHP is at the centre of concern for local communities and civil society organisations in Ukraine, because of the way the company engages stakeholders, acquires land, and impacts the environment, water and the local economic development. Since 2010 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved three loans for MHP, totalling USD 205 million.

Whether or not the company is in compliance with Ukrainian law, local people think they are not adequately protected and do not have an equal voice against a large corporation if it decides to begin construction.

Georgia swept by protests against EBRD-backed hydropower

Protests have in recent weeks broken out across rural Georgia after construction resumed on several large hydropower projects financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Demonstrators have complained that the projects were repeatedly decided behind closed doors, and that poor assessments of the social and environmental consequences mean their livelihoods are under threat.

Update on resettlements at Kolubara mine and other EPS operations

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.

NGOs file a complaint against Vinci Russia for corruption of foreign public officials in Khimki Forest motorway case

A complaint filed last week is requesting an investigation into alleged corruption involving French company Vinci in the construction of a controversial motorway through Khimki Forest near Moscow. The complaint was filed to Nanterre's chief investigating judge by civil society groups Sherpa and CEE Bankwatch Network, activists Evgenia Tchirikova and Mikhail Matveev, and with the support of Princip, defenders of the Khimki forest.

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