ميكا مينيو بالويللو في خضم الحركات الثورية في السنوات الأخيرة، ليس من السهل ألا نلاحظ أن تغير المناخ قد بدأ يغير الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا ،حيث نعيش، تغييراً جذرياً. هذا التحول التدريجي، الذي يصعب تجنبه، يهدد بنزوح الملايين من البشر، إن لم يكن عشرات الملايين، و بتغيير شكل المنطقة بشكل قد يصعب التعرف عليها. و…
One of the most famous critics of the Aliyev regime has been imprisoned in Baku. Khadija Ismayilova, an award winning investigative journalist was arrested for ‘inciting suicide’. If found guilty she faces up to seven years in prison. Ismayilova has spent years uncovering corruption in Azerbaijan, which she has traced all the way up to…
Jamie Doward, Observer
Democracy activist and Platform ally, Rasul Jafarov, was arrested and detained in Baku over the weekend. Rasul has been charged with tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship and power abuse. These are the same falsified charges that saw independent Azeri election monitor Anar Mammadli jailed for 5.5 years. Rasul’s arrest comes shortly after the prominent human rights…
We have published a summary briefing analysing the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s first year of lending in Egypt. The bank remains resolutely committed to directing its funds towards oil extraction, agribusiness and the power sector. Only 4.7% of loans are destined for small & medium-sized enterprises, and 0% to renewable energy projects.
Today the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development is voting on a $50 million loan for oil drilling in Egypt. This is the first major loan by the bank in Egypt since the military takeover in July 2013. The EBRD seems eager to ignore the principles in its founding agreement promoting “initiatives in countries committed…
Cairo/ Brussels May 27, 2013 On Wednesday 29 May, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) will vote on whether to make a $40 million loan to Kuwait Energy to drill and extract oil in Egypt. Egyptian and international organisations are pushing the board of the public multilateral bank to reject the loan –…
BP pushed for major subsidies at the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) AGM in Istanbul last weekend, while hyping the grand scale of its Euro-Caspian Mega Pipeline plans. Between speeches by Prime Ministers and sessions on “Supporting Growth Amidst Austerity”, oil companies revealed their intentions to spend $40 billion expanding Europe’s gas grid…
As the new Egyptian regime run by the Muslim Brotherhood is attempting an aggressive power grab and launching street violence on revolutionaries and opposition groups across the country, a coalition of Egyptian and European organisations are questioning European public banks’ political and financial backing of a constitutional coup and crackdown. In an open letter to…
A $3.7 billion PPP oil refinery expansion in Cairo is accompanied by contradictory project documents, making a mockery of claims by the public banks involved to be committed to “good governance” or democracy. Despite being presented as merely translations of one document, the Arabic and English “versions” are entirely different – with the Arabic markedly…