Regarding its investments
Inequality of the lending : most projects were related to the Visegrad countries that were the ones with the most developed private sectors meaning that the EBRD was underinvesting in the countries that were the most supposed to receive its participation. For instance, those countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) were involved in 46% of the projects signed during the 1991–1993 period.
Some NGOs have criticized the EBRD for financing projects they consider to be environmentally and socially harmful. Although it has increased its investments in energy efficiency and sustainable energy in recent years, the NGOs say the bank diminishes the impacts of green investments by financing carbon-intensive development such as coal, oil, and gas production, transportation, and generation, motorways, airports, fast food, and animal agriculture. Among the contested projects are the Ombla power plant in Croatia, the Kumtor Gold Mine in Kyrgyzstan, and the Šoštanj lignite power plant in Slovenia.
In 2025, the EBRD considered investing €40 million to expand Burger King and Popeyes locations across Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic, but cancelled the plan following opposition by environmental and animal welfare activists.
The EBRD's activities in the Balkans have attracted particular controversy and criticism, especially when they have centered on national parks or free-flowing rivers. This has often involved the completed or proposed construction of hydroelectric dams and road infrastructure. Indeed, a 2017 report alleged deficiencies in monitoring and mitigation measures that had been designed to lessen the environmental impact of dam projects financed by the EBRD, while, in March 2018, outdoor clothing label Patagonia helped launch The Dam Truth campaign, which directly requests international banks including the EBRD to "stop investing in the destruction of Europe's last wild rivers".
In 2011, the EBRD approved a €65 million loan to ELEM, the Macedonian electricity utility, for a dam at Boskov Most. The Standing Committee of the Bern Convention requested immediate suspension of the project, with reference to the high biodiversity of the area and its importance as a core reproductive area for the Balkan lynx, one of the most endangered mammals on the planet. In January 2017, the bank cancelled the loan saying the "conditions for disbursement were not met."
Again in North Macedonia, the EBRD was criticised by environmentalists after plans were announced to bisect National Park Galičica in the UNESCO Ohrid-Prespa Transboundary Biosphere Reserve with an A3 express road, which would have required certain zones of protection in the national park to be downgraded. Scientists from North Macedonia and across the world signed a declaration in opposition to this and other projects proposed for the Ohrid-Prespa region, a message that was reinforced by a Joint Reactive Monitoring Mission from the World Heritage Centre, ICOMOS and the IUCN, which requested total cancellation of proposed A3 road sections. This recommendation was underlined by the World Heritage Committee at its 41st session in Kraków. Eventually, in February 2018, the Republic of North Macedonia abandoned plans for the road, redirecting the EBRD's funds to other infrastructure projects.
