CEE Bankwatch Network

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CEE Bankwatch Network We’re the largest network of grassroots, environmental and human rights groups in CEE region.

📍Today we’re in Luxembourg for the Board Seminar with Civil Society at the European Investment Bank (EIB)! 👁️‍🗨️ Through...
20/10/2026

📍Today we’re in Luxembourg for the Board Seminar with Civil Society at the European Investment Bank (EIB)!

👁️‍🗨️ Throughout the day, we will engage with the Bank’s Board of Directors and management to call for greater accountability, transparency, meaningful public participation and inclusion in its decision-making. These are some of the issues we will be raising:

🛣 The Corridor Vc project in Bosnia and Herzegovina is plagued by cost increases and delays, corruption allegations, contested procurement, unresolved property disputes, and communities excluded from key decisions. The EIB should ensure closer on-the-ground scrutiny and require corrective action where its own standards may have been breached.

🇺🇦 The EIB has become a key source of financing for Ukraine’s recovery. But the central issue is no longer the volume of signed agreements; it is whether they translate into completed facilities, accessible services and tangible climate outcomes. We’re ready to share our findings on project procedures and transparency in its Ukraine portfolio.

🏳️‍🌈 The EIB’s inclusion frameworks are not keeping pace with rapidly changing realities in many of its countries of operation. Restrictions on LGBTIQ+ rights and civic space are growing, exposing weaknesses and raising questions about whether the Bank’s investments are effectively protecting and promoting inclusion.

Follow us for more updates on these topics!

🌐 The United Nations Biodiversity Conference, COP17, starts today in Yerevan, Armenia! From 19 to 30 October, countries...
19/10/2026

🌐 The United Nations Biodiversity Conference, COP17, starts today in Yerevan, Armenia!

From 19 to 30 October, countries are gathering to carry out the first global review of progress towards the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework – a landmark international agreement adopted in December 2022 to halt and reverse global nature and biodiversity loss by 2030.

We’re here to put the spotlight on the links between international public finance and biodiversity. In the coming days, we will focus on:
⛏️ The Amulsar gold mine in Armenia and its impacts on biodiversity and local communities
♻️ Circular economy and biodiversity – how resource use and waste management can help protect nature
💰 International investments and nature – how to ensure that projects financed by international financial institutions protect biodiversity

📢 We will call for greater accountability, meaningful public participation and truly sustainable solutions that work for nature and people.

⏰ 8 years late. Coal power plants across the Western Balkans were supposed to comply with legally binding air pollution...
16/10/2026

⏰ 8 years late.

Coal power plants across the Western Balkans were supposed to comply with legally binding air pollution standards by 1 January 2018. Yet they continue to pollute far beyond these limits.

Bankwatch’s latest ‘Comply or Close’ report shows the sheer scale of the problem:

🔴 Sulphur dioxide emissions were 6.6 times the combined legal limits for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia in 2025.

💨 Dust emissions were 2.9 times the limit.

🧪 Nitrogen oxide emissions were 1.4 times the limit.

And yet not a single plant operator has been fined.

The question is no longer whether governments have had enough time to act.

They have.

Now they need to enforce the rules, hold polluters accountable and accelerate a managed transition away from coal.

👉 Explore our findings and recommendations: www.complyorclose.org

In September, we travelled to the Jalal-Abad region in Kyrgyzstan to learn more about the potential environmental, socia...
15/10/2026

In September, we travelled to the Jalal-Abad region in Kyrgyzstan to learn more about the potential environmental, social and human rights impacts of the Kambarata-1 hydropower project. 🧐

👁️‍🗨️ We met local communities to hear their perspectives, understand their concerns and document risks to their livelihoods and the environment. We want to make sure that local voices are heard and that these concerns are understood and addressed as the project moves forward.

We’re now working on a report presenting the findings and recommendations from the mission. Stay tuned for more!

This project is funded by the European Union in Kyrgyzstan. Its contents are the sole responsibility of CEE Bankwatch Network and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

💬 Our colleague Manana Kochladze will speak at Devex Impact House in Bangkok during The World Bank Group and Internation...
13/10/2026

💬 Our colleague Manana Kochladze will speak at Devex Impact House in Bangkok during The World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings. She will discuss how international financial institutions can uphold their LGBTIQ+ inclusion commitments and put them into practice.

✒️ Request an invitation to attend in person, or register to watch the recording: https://pages.devex.com/world-bank-imf-annual-meetings-2026.html

📢Climate adaptation funding shouldn’t come at the expense of climate-critical ecosystems. It sounds obvious, but in west...
12/10/2026

📢Climate adaptation funding shouldn’t come at the expense of climate-critical ecosystems.

It sounds obvious, but in west-central Poland, an EU-funded ‘pond restoration’ project resulted in a valuable peatland being dug up. By keeping a close🔎on how EU funds were being spent, civil society groups raised the alarm, challenged inaccurate assessments and pushed for the project documentation to be reassessed.

✅ The result: new wetland protection guidelines that are now mandatory for EU-funded projects affecting wetlands in the region.

❗This case shows why monitoring committees and public participation are crucial to making sure EU funds support nature protection rather than undermine it.

Read the full story on our website:
https://bankwatch.org/story/how-monitoring-eu-funds-helped-strengthen-wetland-protection-in-poland

📌 We’re in Bangkok for the World Bank Group Annual Meetings! We’ll be raising concerns with the World Bank about shrink...
12/10/2026

📌 We’re in Bangkok for the World Bank Group Annual Meetings!

We’ll be raising concerns with the World Bank about shrinking civic space and the growing exclusion of LGBTIQ+ people, both in countries where the Bank operates and in the projects it finances.

🤐 Development cannot be truly sustainable if people are excluded from decisions that affect their lives or if civic freedoms and human rights are under threat. Excluding people also runs counter to the World Bank’s own goals of creating jobs and helping countries withstand extreme weather and the food, energy and inflation shocks worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war in the Middle East.

📢 We’ll also be calling for meaningful participation and inclusion, stronger safeguards and climate-friendly technologies, and pressing for greater accountability and transparency so that development finance leaves no one behind.

Attending the meetings too? Get in touch, and follow us for more updates!

🙋‍♀️ We’re at the ILGA-Europe Annual Conference in Dublin! 🏳️‍🌈Today, we hosted a workshop with LGBTI organization Deyst...
09/10/2026

🙋‍♀️ We’re at the ILGA-Europe Annual Conference in Dublin! 🏳️‍🌈

Today, we hosted a workshop with LGBTI organization Deystvie on the topic ‘Who pays for the future? Following money, power and promises for LGBTIQ+ equality’, in which we explored how international financial institutions shape the lives of LGBTIQ+ people around the world.

🤐 A timely discussion, given the continued growth of homophobic legislation and attacks on LGBTIQ+ activists across Europe, Central Asia and beyond.

07/10/2026

🚍 Cities across the Western Balkans need public transport that’s accessible, affordable, safe and sustainable – not more car-dominated roads.

💰 Public banks and funders like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank, KfW and the Western Balkans Investment Framework can help drive this shift – but people must have a meaningful say in how mobility systems are designed.

Better public transport means better access for everyone, especially women and other groups who rely on it most.

📽 Thank you to Eko-svest, Qendra EDEN/ EDEN Center, the City of Skopje and others for joining our discussion in Skopje, and to Open Society Foundations - Western Balkans for their support.

02/10/2026

🛣 Transport corridors are reshaping the Western Balkans. But what happens when development comes at the cost of rivers, forests and biodiversity?

For Corridor 8 in North Macedonia, environmental safeguards and accountability remain major concerns. We’re calling for robust nature protection, whoever finances the project – the EU or non-EU sources, public or private funds!

📽 Produced in collaboration with , with support from the .

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