Letter to Commerzbank regarding Belarus
24 May 2021
We, Members of Presidium of Coordination Council of Belarus and the economic body of National Anti-crisis Management, are writing to you regarding your recent lending to Belarusian government-held entity “Breskenergo” and your possible involvement in a loan to government-held entities “Minskenergo” and “TEC-5”. As is stated on the website of Eurasian Development Bank they are planning to lend 101 mln. euros to the latter two Belarusian entities, and a consortium of German banks played a major role in raising funds for this loan.
We would like to inform you that any financial institutes involved in relationships with the regime are at risk to get into violation of ESG policies, work against their reputation, make business practices look at least questionable to stakeholders and put themselves into additional credit default risk... According to terms of this loan agreement, proceeds should be used to purchase Siemens equipment...
The "Minskenergo" and it’s subsidiary "TEC-5" are among a long list of factories that are continuously acting against internationally accepted labour rights. We have received a huge number of reports from employees who have suffered repressions... because of their active political position...