CEE Bankwatch Network

‼ This Thursday, the World Bank plans to approve a USD 195.5 million loan for a new fossil gas pipeline and institutional reforms in Serbia.

But this would take the country in the wrong direction. Serbia is already struggling to secure gas imports, yet instead of reducing its dependence, the government is planning more gas power plants.

Earlier this year, the World Bank also approved a US 2.4 million grant to help North Macedonia prepare a new gas power and heat plant in Bitola.

Together, these projects signal increased Bank support for fossil gas use in the Western Balkans. This would undermine decarbonisation, increase import dependence and exacerbate vulnerability to price fluctuations.

The EU has now stopped funding gas infrastructure in the region, and the World Bank must do so as well.

That’s why 14 organisations have written to the World Bank’s Board today. We’re calling for a fundamental reassessment of the Serbia gas project’s rationale, alternatives and climate compatibility, and asking the Bank not to back fossil gas in the Western Balkans.

https://bankwatch.org/publication/letter-to-the-world-bank-board-on-the-serbia-strategic-gas-infrastructure-and-institutional-strengthening-project

Last week, we joined Ukrainian communities, local authorities, civil society organisations, experts and donors in Košice 🇸🇰, for a capacity-building seminar on turning local green ideas into fundable projects.

🇺🇦 Reconstruction funding shouldn’t be reserved for the big cities. Local communities need the capacity and tools to access financing and build a greener, more resilient future.

In her session on financing, Vladlena Martsynkevych, Bankwatch’s lead on Ukraine’s reconstruction, highlighted some of the barriers these communities face. International financial institutions often favour larger municipalities, leaving promising local ideas stuck outside the funding pipeline due to a lack of planning capacity, feasibility studies and environmental safeguards.

🤝 But there are ways to bridge the gap. Smaller communities can team up with neighbouring municipalities, build capacity and plan strategically. Being proactive – and building in environmental safeguards like the EU’s ‘do no significant harm’ principle from the start – can help projects stand out from the crowd.

Discover more: https://bankwatch.org/publication/the-social-climate-fund-and-the-do-no-significant-harm-principle-lessons-for-ukraine-s-public-investment-management-system

RESDI - Roma Environmental Sustainability & Development Initiative
Špirála
Міністерство економіки, довкілля та сільського господарства України
Carpathian Convention
UN Environment Programme
UNIDO - United Nations Industrial Development Organization
Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)

📢RePower the Regions wants to introduce itself to the🌍

For almost 3 years, it travelled across 16 carbon-intensive regions, learning, listening, and helping communities shape their clean-energy future. Its experiences have been turned into an interactive toolkit – a living, breathing digital interactive companion so you can:
📖 Flip through pages
✨ Explore regions
🎧 Listen to stories
🎥 Watch the journey

Click on 🔗and make sure your 🔊 is ON as you explore virtual pages.

2026_06_23_Just transition toolkit

🇺🇦 Reconstruction is already happening in Ukraine, and it can’t wait until the war is over.

At the Czech-Ukrainian Discussion Forum in Prague 🇨🇿 organised by the Czech Asociace pro mezinárodní otázky/Association for International Affairs, Bankwatch joined discussions on Ukraine’s recovery and brought an environmental and community perspective to the debate.

As Vladlena Martsynkevych, Bankwatch’s lead on Ukraine reconstruction, highlighted, reconstruction should follow sustainability principles and be transparent and accountable to people in Ukraine. ‘Building back better’ is often used when talking about reconstruction, and that’s why environmental considerations must play an essential part in that process.

🌱 Building back better means making recovery green by design, with environmental criteria and strong safeguards built into decisions from the outset, rather than added later.

As Ukraine moves towards EU membership, the choices being made today will shape the country’s future for decades to come.

📣 A public consultation is open until 16 September on the European Commission’s approach to applying the ‘do no significant harm’ principle in the next EU budget, from 2028 to 2034.

The good news:

✅ A unified approach is planned across all EU funds

✅ Duplication with existing EU law is reduced

✅ Some harmful activities are clearly excluded

The bad news:

❌ Sweeping exemptions for ‘overriding public interest’ – projects proven harmful under EU legislation but granted derogations

❌ Blanket exemptions for ‘defence and security’

❌ Exemptions for taxonomy-compliant activities, thus introducing parallel, inconsistent criteria

❌ Lower standards for non-EU countries, including accession countries

❌ Too few activity types considered as always harmful

❌ Unjustified exceptions from these activity types, often lowering existing standards

❌ Many potentially harmful activities will not be subject to DNSH criteria or assessments at all.

What can still be done❓

💡Read our new position paper: https://bankwatch.org/publication/the-commission-s-do-no-significant-harm-concept-paper-clearer-approach-welcome-but-major-loopholes-must-be-closed

🙌 We’re hosting the Transport Policy and Finance Forum in Skopje, North Macedonia, together with -svest!

This event brings together distinguished speakers from the Transport Community, the City of Skopje, and civil society organisations under the Transport Policy Partnership, supported by the Open Society Foundations - Western Balkans. What’s on the agenda?

🚍 Urban mobility: Monday morning opens with the Transport Community’s Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan Platform, followed by a look at real-world projects and lessons from Podgorica, Tirana and Skopje.
🛣️ Regional integration: In the afternoon, the focus shifts to integration into the EU’s transport network, examining progress and challenges along the critical Corridors Vc and VIII. We’ll also explore collaboration models between public institutions, civil society and the private sector.
🤝 Civil society strategy: On Tuesday, we’ll join our colleagues to discuss the joint priorities and future actions needed to deliver sustainable transport and mobility in the Western Balkans.

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

🌲 At the 17th Meeting of the Carpathian Convention Implementation Committee in Vienna 🇦🇹, we raised concerns about the Mount Runa wind farm in Ukraine’s Carpathians, a case that highlights the difficult balance between renewable energy development and protecting valuable mountain ecosystems.

The wind farm is being built on Mount Runa, a proposed Emerald Network site. Construction began before the environmental assessment was completed, while associated infrastructure, including an access road and power line, was left out of the assessment. More than 40 hectares of forest have been cleared for the power line alone.

A recent court ruling found that clearing centuries-old virgin forest for the access road was illegal.

♻️ Ukraine urgently needs more renewable energy. But the cannot come at the expense of the nature it’s meant to protect.

Our recent issue paper looks at the Mount Runa case and what it means for environmental safeguards, biodiversity and Ukraine’s green reconstruction.

🔗 Read the issue paper: https://bankwatch.org/publication/ukraine-s-mount-runa-at-risk-why-the-ebrd-and-oschadbank-wind-farm-investment-sets-a-dangerous-precedent

🤔 Can we seriously call waste incineration part of the circular economy when only around 1% of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s waste is recycled?

That was one of the questions raised at the “WASTE–RESOURCE for the Development of a Circular Economy” conference in Sarajevo 🇧🇦, where we presented our research on trends across the .

Discussions covered refuse-derived fuel (RDF), solid recovered fuel (SRF), alternative fuels, waste co-incineration in cement kilns, and the role of regional waste management centres.

🔥 But the bigger question is: Why are we discussing how to burn waste before we have functioning systems to prevent, reuse, separate and recycle it?

♻️ A starts with keeping materials in circulation. Incineration should not become a way of side-stepping the waste management reforms the region urgently needs.

📖 Read our report and see what the evidence tells us: https://bankwatch.org/publication/waste-incineration-trends-in-the-western-balkans-a-critical-overview-of-energy-and-heat-generation

🛣 Corridor Vc – the EU’s flagship motorway through Bosnia and Herzegovina – should have been completed by 2012.
It’s now 2026 and only around 45% of the 330-km motorway has been built, with costs soaring to nearly EUR 5.2 billion – and still rising.

In our new briefing, we examine 9 sections of the project that reveal a pattern of alleged corruption, cost increases and delays, procurement failures, unresolved property disputes, and poor engagement with affected communities.

📢We’re calling on the EU and international financial institutions (European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)) to demand transparency and accountability before releasing further funds!

Read the briefing here: https://bankwatch.org/publication/corridor-vc-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina-the-public-cost-of-weak-governance