CEE Bankwatch Network

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

05/06/2026

🙋‍♀️ We’re at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Annual Meeting in Riga.

The EBRD recently unveiled its new Gender Equality and Human Capital Strategy. Alongside our civil society partners from across the region, we continue to advocate for strong gender rights safeguards and truly inclusive development that the Bank can promote through its investments.

🎥 One of the civil society partners who joined us in Riga to share her perspective is Preslava Fentham-Fletcher of Будителките I The Wake Up Foundation in Bulgaria. Listen to her message for the EBRD!

🌿It’s International Environment Day! 🌿With the Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Annual Meeting starting t...
05/06/2026

🌿It’s International Environment Day! 🌿

With the Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Annual Meeting starting today, now is the moment to confront a painful truth: development projects can cause major environmental harm, often leaving local communities to bear the consequences.

One of our goals at the EBRD sessions in Riga is to hold the Bank accountable for the harm its projects cause and make sure adequate remedy is provided.

Check out the issues we’ll be raising and follow us for more updates!
🔗https://bankwatch.org/ebrd-annual-meeting-2026

At the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Annual Meeting in Riga, we’ll be drawing attention to pro...
04/06/2026

At the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Annual Meeting in Riga, we’ll be drawing attention to projects where development financing has come at a huge cost to local communities and the environment.

🛣️ One example is the North–South Corridor in Georgia – supported by the EBRD and part of a wider highway expansion programme.
This project has had devastating social, environmental and cultural impacts, including:
🏗️ environmental risks linked to construction and waste disposal;
👷‍♀️ recurring concerns over worker health and safety;
🤐 harassment of affected communities and silencing of local voices; and
⛪ damage to the Khada Valley’s cultural heritage.

We’re calling on the EBRD and the other banks involved to ensure that infrastructure investments deliver public benefits without leaving communities to bear the costs.

Get in touch if you’d like to discuss this in Riga!

🔗 Read more: https://bankwatch.org/project/georgia-s-east-west-and-north-south-road-projects-counting-the-true-costs-of-highway-expansion

🤔 The purpose of development banks’ safeguards is to prevent harm. But what happens when they fail in practice? This isn...
03/06/2026

🤔 The purpose of development banks’ safeguards is to prevent harm. But what happens when they fail in practice?

This isn’t a hypothetical question – we’ve seen it happen in Kazakhstan with the expansion of Almaty International Airport, a project financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and IFC - International Finance Corporation. In a joint publication with Ecological Society Green Salvation, we highlight civil society’s concerns with the project:
🔨Demolition of a protected cultural heritage site.
⚠️Failure to establish a legally required sanitary protection zone.
🙅‍♀️Barriers to public participation and access to information.
🤐Intimidation and reprisals against those who speak out.

These issues raise broader questions about oversight, accountability and the implementation of environmental and social safeguards – points we’ll be raising this week at the EBRD Annual Meeting in Riga.

🔗Read more here:https://bankwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026_05_Broken-safeguards-and-oversight-failures_The-case-of-Almaty-International-Airport-2.pdf

The Nature Restoration Regulation is a historic opportunity to restore nature across Europe. EU Member States must submi...
03/06/2026

The Nature Restoration Regulation is a historic opportunity to restore nature across Europe. EU Member States must submit their national restoration plans by 1 September 2026 – and the clock is ticking.

We examined the costs of restoration projects in Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia and Poland. Our upcoming report presents an alternative methodology for calculating national financing needs for restoration.

💡 Learn how EU funds can be mobilised to !

🗓️ Join us for the report launch, hosted by MEP César Luena: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/x0YirUeUJx

What’s it like living next to Ukraine’s agricultural giant MHP? 🐔 Together with our colleagues from Екодія, we’ve been ...
02/06/2026

What’s it like living next to Ukraine’s agricultural giant MHP? 🐔

Together with our colleagues from Екодія, we’ve been monitoring water quality issues affecting rural communities in Ukraine’s Vinnytsia region for the past five years.

While access to safe drinking water 💧 remains a pressing issue for the local population, the latest round of testing shows that water quality and quantity continue to decline.

Read our issue paper for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Annual Meeting:
https://bankwatch.org/publication/neighbouring-mhp-s-poultry-farms-five-years-of-water-monitoring-in-ukraine-s-vinnytsia-region-reveal-pollution

🚌 In recent years, the public transport fleet in Bishkek – Kyrgyzstan’s capital city – has changed visibly. In a city wh...
01/06/2026

🚌 In recent years, the public transport fleet in Bishkek – Kyrgyzstan’s capital city – has changed visibly. In a city where privately operated minibuses – or marshrutkas – dominated for years, gas-powered and electric buses have entered the scene.

The municipal fleet currently includes around 1,600 vehicles. Of these, 424 were purchased through grants and loans provided by international financial institutions, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) .

While this appears to signal a move to sustainable urban mobility, an analysis of Bishkek’s public transport system conducted by our colleagues in Kyrgyzstan suggests that renewing the fleet hasn’t improved efficiency.

🔗 Read their analysis and recommendations:https://bankwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/More-buses-but-is-the-system-better_-Analysis-of-the-public-transport-network-in-Bishkek.pdf

29/05/2026

In the past years, Ukraine’s work on just transition has immensely progressed, despite the war on Ukraine and lack of dedicated EU funding for just transition.

In the latest episode of our podcast, with our guest, Kostiantyn Krynytskyi, head of the energy department at Екодія, we discussed how communities helped shape and implement transformative projects that go beyond decarbonisationand just transition, but also what type of support is needed for the transition to be successful.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1GNKH6x3qqAmLGuB2CSRx8

🌊 Over the past two decades, the lower Sava in Slovenia has been turned into a series of reservoirs and dams.Now, Sloven...
28/05/2026

🌊 Over the past two decades, the lower Sava in Slovenia has been turned into a series of reservoirs and dams.

Now, Slovenia’s state-owned Hidroelektrarne na Spodnji Savi is trying to build the last in the chain – the controversial Mokrice hydropower plant.

Yet the project will have huge impacts on fish species and water quality.

The damage from the Mokrice dam won’t stop at the Croatian border. In the recent environmental assessment, the impacts on Croatia have been downplayed.

🧠 It’s high time to rethink this outdated project.

Read Pippa Gallop's story: https://bankwatch.org/story/the-damage-from-slovenia-s-mokrice-dam-won-t-stop-at-the-croatian-border

🫣 What happens when development projects result in environmental and social harm? We hope to discuss this next week at t...
28/05/2026

🫣 What happens when development projects result in environmental and social harm? We hope to discuss this next week at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Annual Meeting.

As the Bank revises its Project Accountability Policy, the EBRD has a golden opportunity to strengthen access to remedy and ensure meaningful public participation – key conditions for genuine development and democratic transition.

📢 We’re calling for more efficient use of the EBRD Independent Project Accountability Mechanism through stronger monitoring of management action plans, and safe access to the mechanism.

Read our comments here:https://bankwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Bankwatch-comments-on-EBRD-PAP-and-IPAM.pdf

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