On February 25 European Commissioner for Regional Policy Danuta Huebener appeared before the European Parliament to award ‘RegioStars’ for innovative development projects. CEE Bankwatch Network and Friends of the Earth Europe convened in Brussels on the very same day to launch a new map detailing development projects of an altogether different stripe, while the two organisations also revealed their selection of ‘RegioScars’—i.e. the “three most ill-conceived projects for EU funding in the new member states in the 2007–2013 period.”

The green groups singled out 50 projects in Central and Eastern Europe that are “environmentally damaging and in many cases economically dubious,” according to a Bankwatch press release. The projects singled out for criticism are all being carried out via the EU’s structural and cohesion funds and/or European Investment Bank and are worth an estimated total of EUR 22 billion.

The map, titled EU and EIB Funding in Central and Eastern Europe: Cohesion or Collision?, includes “18 waste incinerators promoted at the expense of recycling which is better for both the environment and economic development; 14 motorways ineptly routed through valuable natural areas or residential zones regardless of possible alternatives; [and] eight river engineering and other water management projects set to destroy unique natural sites,” the Bankwatch press release continued.

“Our aim with this map of controversial projects is to warn about the problems before they happen,” said CEE Bankwatch Network EU-Affairs Coordinator Anelia Stefanova. “Most of the 50 projects are still under preparation.”

The three ‘RegioScars’—selected by an NGO jury based on environmental, economic and social criteria—were the following: a EUR 1 billion scheme for building nine waste incinerators in Poland; Poland’s Via Baltica expressway; and the Czech Republic’s R52 expressway (Brno-Vienna connection). The entire map and detailed explanations can be viewed in PDF format at:.