172. Banking On The Environment In Central and Eastern Europe
How effectively have multilateral development banks (MDBs)
addressed environmental issues in Central and Eastern Europe?
The World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(EBRD), and European Investment Bank (EIB) are among the major
donors to the region, providing more than $25 billion in loans,
which usually attract additional private sector, and bilateral
and recipient government financing as well. All three banks have
been struggling in recent years to respond to pressure to better
address environmental issues in their global and regional work,
while often facing criticism by non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) for doing a poor job in translating ideas and policies
into action. Environmental aid has also been a donor priority in
this region for several reasons: to help address the enormous
environmental degradation, to assist in policy reform efforts
and, more recently, to help countries aspiring to join the
European Union (EU)