Bankwatch Mail
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[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 45
(June 8, 2010)
Flip through Bankwatch Mail 45 in our quick preview.
In this issue: Commission seeking to boost EIB development lending despite failures and lack of details * EU Budget review missing in action * Developments in development lending - what Lisbon means for EIB lending outside Europe * A non-meeting of minds once again at the EIB's annual meeting * EU Funds: More light equals fewer shades of grey * Fossil farce a cure for Greek tragedy? * EIB treads cautiously over controversial Slovak road project for now * Romania's EU billions: PPP piranhas sniff a killing * The troubled bridges over Belgrade's water * NGOs point the way to sustainable transport for the Western Balkans * Transparency at the EU's bank - but not in our name
In this issue: Commission seeking to boost EIB development lending despite failures and lack of details * EU Budget review missing in action * Developments in development lending - what Lisbon means for EIB lending outside Europe * A non-meeting of minds once again at the EIB's annual meeting * EU Funds: More light equals fewer shades of grey * Fossil farce a cure for Greek tragedy? * EIB treads cautiously over controversial Slovak road project for now * Romania's EU billions: PPP piranhas sniff a killing * The troubled bridges over Belgrade's water * NGOs point the way to sustainable transport for the Western Balkans * Transparency at the EU's bank - but not in our name
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 44
(May 12, 2010)
Flip through Bankwatch Mail 44 in our quick preview.
In this issue: EBRD own goal on coal will under-mine clean energy ambitions * Croatia: land of sun, sea and contradictory strategies * Sustainable energy mischief in Ukraine * Mining’s winners and losers on show in new film * Hopes and more fears in Central Asia * More sustainable development pipedreams? BTC shows how not to do Nabucco * Post-conflict aid to Georgia: mission accomplished or fait accompli? * Ukrainian supermarket workers short-changed by EBRD loan * Energy Goliath scavenges for every last favour in ČEZ Republic * New energy scenario for Czech Republic foresees big cuts in emissions - and no need for nuclear * Co-operation on Skopje Bypass goes a long way * Out of sight - new Gazela web initiative * Slovenia’s carbon-intensive energy plans set for EBRD backing * EBRD oblivious to Hungarian PPP pooh-pooh? * More energy insecurity - new report
In this issue: EBRD own goal on coal will under-mine clean energy ambitions * Croatia: land of sun, sea and contradictory strategies * Sustainable energy mischief in Ukraine * Mining’s winners and losers on show in new film * Hopes and more fears in Central Asia * More sustainable development pipedreams? BTC shows how not to do Nabucco * Post-conflict aid to Georgia: mission accomplished or fait accompli? * Ukrainian supermarket workers short-changed by EBRD loan * Energy Goliath scavenges for every last favour in ČEZ Republic * New energy scenario for Czech Republic foresees big cuts in emissions - and no need for nuclear * Co-operation on Skopje Bypass goes a long way * Out of sight - new Gazela web initiative * Slovenia’s carbon-intensive energy plans set for EBRD backing * EBRD oblivious to Hungarian PPP pooh-pooh? * More energy insecurity - new report
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 43
(April 29, 2010)
Flip through Bankwatch Mail 43 in our quick preview.
In this issue: Wise up! European Development Bank red herring masks critique of EIB's external operations * The case for cyanide in Bulgaria's gold mines kicked out * Lost in transition * New EU funds report and website * EU funds sinking in Latvia's enduring crisis swamp * Charge of the electricity brigade against villagers in Ukraine * Will the World Bank be rewarded for business as usual or put to the test to stop climate-damaging development? * Belene in and out of the grip of Russia * IFI round-up * Adding insult to injury: the World Bank and IMF's current legacy in Serbia * Bank watchdog boycotts ADB annual meeting in Tashkent
In this issue: Wise up! European Development Bank red herring masks critique of EIB's external operations * The case for cyanide in Bulgaria's gold mines kicked out * Lost in transition * New EU funds report and website * EU funds sinking in Latvia's enduring crisis swamp * Charge of the electricity brigade against villagers in Ukraine * Will the World Bank be rewarded for business as usual or put to the test to stop climate-damaging development? * Belene in and out of the grip of Russia * IFI round-up * Adding insult to injury: the World Bank and IMF's current legacy in Serbia * Bank watchdog boycotts ADB annual meeting in Tashkent
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 42
(September 30, 2009)
Flip through Bankwatch Mail 42 in our quick preview.
In this issue: Disclosure policy review - A glass of information half full or half empty? * Bank 'panglosses' over the facts with new Georgian partnership strategy * EBRD, EIB culpable of policy violations in resettling Belgrade Roma * Heat rising on international public lenders to come clean for the climate * ČEZ chez the EIB – It's invite only to the black masque energy security fundraiser * IMF's pro-cyclical brakes pile on the misery across central and eastern Europe * The silence of the scams no more
In this issue: Disclosure policy review - A glass of information half full or half empty? * Bank 'panglosses' over the facts with new Georgian partnership strategy * EBRD, EIB culpable of policy violations in resettling Belgrade Roma * Heat rising on international public lenders to come clean for the climate * ČEZ chez the EIB – It's invite only to the black masque energy security fundraiser * IMF's pro-cyclical brakes pile on the misery across central and eastern Europe * The silence of the scams no more
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 41
(June 22, 2009)
In this issue: Environmental navigation can steer paths through EU funds storm * EU shadow banking sanctioned by the EU * EIB transport lending off course thanks to climate and biodiversity blind spots * Crisis loans set to dig more holes in Serbia * Croatia to become dumping ground of Europe? * Real costs of nukes in central and eastern Europe unleashed * The road to cyanide gold is paved with abuses
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 40
(May 14, 2009)
In this issue: Nabucco spells energy securitisation not security * Crisis puts the EBRD back in the same old business * EBRD complaint mechanism gets a personality * EBRD drawing more power lines in Ukraine’s unsustainable energy sands * An end to energy efficiency excuses in Ukraine * Flagship PPP road project to be built with state money * ArcelorMittal – Going nowhere slowly * Hopeless in Gazela * New Gazela documentary * More dirty energy development for Albania * Smoke on Georgian water privatisation * Faster, smarter but more destructive crisis money for CEE?
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 39
(April 1, 2009)
In this issue: Earth calling the IFIs – Take me to your added value * Countdown to Copenhagen finds the EU stuck in limbo * Wind frozen and trees cut in Latvian crisis measures * The penny starts to drop on PPPs * Oil, gas and the IFIs: Sketching some lines on the horizon * Landmark legal victory compels Ex-Im Bank and OPIC to get real on their fossil fuel lending * Transparency fever gripping the World Bank? * World Bank needs to act on Kazakh power project shocker * EIB proceeds to go with new statement, environment and affected communities still not out of jail * Staff over-stretch requires strong intervention on the EIB's shopfloor
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 38
(December 1, 2008)
A fossil free EIB requires political will * South east Europe's leaders to cling to carbon during COP 14 * Counting down to Copenhagen – counting on public money to do more for climate-friendly investments * No more excuses for IFI heel-dragging on renewables in emerging markets * EBRD carbon factor: Readers decide * Many cooks stirring Albania's carbon soup * Looking beyond nuke bickering in the Baltics * EU-Ukraine energy cooperation needs a rethink * World Bank is accomplishing mission impossible in CEE, says the Bank * PPP's perils and pitfalls make it no panacea – new Bankwatch report
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 37
(June 2, 2008)
EU billions must help to reduce waste, not boost it * European Investment Bank urged to stop fueling the incineration fire * Zero waste, zero pain * The EIB undermines Africa * Strange bedfellows: the EIB’s huge fossil fuels portfolio is smothering clean energy initiatives * A deluge of public subsidies for Ethiopian dam projects, but public benefits missing * Public consultation on EIB environmental policy at last, but problems persist * Czech roads paved with whose gold exactly?
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 36
(May 16, 2008)
Why is the EBRD tacitly backing Ukraine's nuke-centric, inefficient energy plans? * Football and PPPs do not mix * Renewables continue to get a rough ride in Georgia * Other transitions are out there – but not as the EBRD knows it * Wake up and smell ArcelorMittal - global case studies reveal who picks up the tab for steel giant * PIP squeaks again: no end in sight to info disclosure constipation at the EBRD
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 35
(April 28, 2008)
Bottom line additionality in Kazakhstan as more miners die * Campaign successes amidst the Black Weeks * New map of projects points the way to environmental and social justice in CEE * Feeding the Asian Tigers: Lack of environmental teeth in ADB’s energy strategy * Counter Balance: Challenging the European Investment Bank * European Parliament looks for more added value from the EIB * Energy Matters: new Bankwatch report and film explore big industry developments in Albania * Going nuclear: the EIB's waiting game continues * EBRD crackdown on “open markets” in Ukraine * They’ll pave paradise and put up...a high-speed road
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 34
(December 17, 2007)
The more things change… * … the more they stay the same * Backing a loser: PPP never never land comes to CEE * Albania at the crossroads – how the IFIs could be doing so much more * Outbreak of winter silly season commentary on the EBRD * Recent Bankwatch publications
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 33
(June 4, 2007)
Too much carbon in EU funding – Commission rubber stamps 30 percent rise in Polish GHGs * EIB approves Bujagali Dam in Uganda despite major flaws * Environmental and social safeguards – time to get serious at the EIB *
Poland facing trial in European Court of Justice over Via Baltica
* Dos and donts - how the EIB can avoid development pitfalls
* When is corruption not corruption? Ask the EIB
* The memory hole
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 32
(May 18, 2007)
The need for diversification in the Russian economy: a role for the EBRD? * Sakhalin II problems persist despite ownership fight * EBRD tries to shrug off devastating Kashagan oilfield impacts * Aarhus Convention ignored by IFIs in Albania * Squeezing the poor: the EBRD’s role in privatisation in Montenegro * More EBRD money to fund more Mittal tragedy in Kazakhstan?
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 31
(April 18, 2007)
Planes, loans and automobiles * Kyrgyzstan’s government rejected HIPC shackles thanks to public pressure * Editorial: Double standards for how much longer? * The nuclear white elephant in Bulgaria’s room * Rospuda interview – EU law in the driving seat * First PPP motorway in Russia to cause problems for thousands of people * Your voice in Europe: support the Green paper on urban transport
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 30
(October 31, 2006)
Race against time to salvage EU funding for sustainable energy in the new member states *
Bulgaria’s nuclear dowry
* Customer complaints hit EIB shopping centre loan in Hungary
* Hot air could become hotter in Ukraine
* EBRD Environmental Policy Review is rolling
* Short cuts over houses required for more growth in Slovakia
* Toxic dump in a marine reserve?
* World Bank Group’s renewable energy numbers exposed
* NGO energy report
* EBRD pigs to fly again?
* New Bankwatch guide helps bring Brussels closer to EU citizens
* Can the Kaczynski brothers afford to duck the Via Baltica issue?
* Local resistance sees off south Bohemian incinerator
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 29
(May 30, 2006)
Cohesion or Collision? EU funding and biodiversity * Shell's Sakhalin project no friend of people or nature * People's right to know not fully reflected in EIB's new plans to show * Will the neighbouring countries' biodiversity be bulldozed by TEN-T extension? * EIB 1996-2006; Evolution of an invisible giant * New Citizen's Guide for better use of internationally recognised complaint mechanisms * Saaremaa bridge- a crazy Estonian dream * EU waste strategy and public funds must not go up in smoke
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 28
(May 21, 2006)
Forging the future, without faking it * Prostitution, trafficking, and STDs on the rise in EBRD oil projects * The EBRD's PIP show * Azerbaijan's oil boom showing troubling signs * Georgia's economic situation less than rosy * New energy targets don't tell the whole story * EBRD's kiss and tell reinvents transition * The memory hole * New Zagreb waste strategy fails to justify incineration
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 27
(March 3, 2006)
Sakhalin fishermen’s struggle for justice * Can the EIB deliver on development? * The memory hole * Scraping the bottom of the end-of-pipe barrel * Social issues SOS from EBRD Environmental Department * Time to wake up from South-East Europe’s pipeline dreams * Nukes and cronies in the Balkans * Two or three Americans: Wolfowitz and his Republican appointees * World Bank helping to tarnish jewels of Polish nature * EIB in the South. In whose interest? * We will not be moved * EU funds in central and eastern Europe: cohesion or collision?
[Newsletter] Bankwatch Mail 26: World Bank monothematic issue
(September 20, 2005)
Key IFC review threatens Wolfowitz's noble mission * Czech Republic's carbon cowboys exposed
* World Bank rubs salt into Uzbek wounds
* Why Serbian pensioners are calling World Bank reforms ?genocidal'
* The Memory Hole
* Canadian mining company discovering more than it bargained for in south-east Bulgaria
* EIR still not getting through in Russia or in Washington
CEE Bankwatch Network gratefully acknowledges EU funding support.