It is fitting that we use today to reflect on the European Investment Bank’s new Strategy on Gender Equality and Women's Economic Empowerment: 8 March is International Women’s Day. Adopted at the beginning of this year, the strategy complements the bank’s existing social policy and reflects the equality principle of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

On Sunday, March 5, nuclear reactor number 3 at the Zaporizhia power plant in Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, will reach the end of its 30 year lifespan. Kiev wants to keep this Soviet-era nuclear unit going for at least ten more years, just like six other nuclear units which have already been granted lifetime extensions. But, for the first time and following a lot of international pressure, the Ukrainian government is planning to ask its neighbours whether they are OK with this. Or at least that’s what it says.

This blog first appeared on Balkan Green Energy News

On 22 February, more than 70 activists and residents from the Chyhyryn region south of Kyiv protested outside the headquarters of Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP), the Ukrainian agribusiness conglomerate owned by one of the country’s richest billionaires. The protesters were airing their grievances against MHP’s plans to greatly expand its poultry operations in Chyhyryn, which locals believe will have a devastating effect on the small and medium sized farmers and the tourist potential of the area.