Counter Balance

Brussels, 6 July 2017 By ActionAid & Counter Balance The European Parliament has just [6 July] adopted the final regulation setting up the External Investment Plan and its financial pillar – the so-called European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD) [1]. The creation of this investment plan was announced by the president of the European Commission […]

Brussels/Strasbourg, 15.6.2017 The European Parliament adopted today a critical resolution on the implementation of the Investment Plan for Europe (so-called “Juncker Plan”) and its flagship initiative – the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). Counter Balance welcomes the report adopted, although it paid little attention to the harmful environmental and climate impacts of projects supported […]

May 22, 2017 Prague, Brussels The EU’s 28 finance ministers will be meeting tomorrow (May 23) to discuss the priorities of the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the coming year. A new analysis finds the bank’s contribution to Europe’s response to the climate crisis has been worryingly insufficient and needs to be stepped up. An […]

Nine European countries have been named and shamed today in a public fossil fuel subsidies awards ceremony in Brussels. From 10 April until 8 May, the public voted on the deadliest, dirtiest and sneakiest subsidies to fossil fuels in Europe. A Special Award was also symbolically handed out to the EU institutions for their support […]

Today in Strasburg, the European Parliament lead committees have brought the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) closer to compliance with the Paris Climate Agreement. However, they have once again fallen short of eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, which stand in the way of climate action. Today the ECON/BUDG committees (1) voted on the European Parliament’s […]

In two reports on the European Investment Bank adopted today in Brussels, Members of the European Parliament have called on the EU’s bank to step up its efforts against climate change and enhance its transparency and accountability. Counter Balance and CEE Bankwatch Network welcome the positions taken today by the Parliament in two complementary resolutions […]