CAPE TOWN - The Fairtrade certification system arrived in South Africa in the mid-2000s with the promise of helping dismantle centuries-old inequalities. Yet, twenty years later, many farm workers feel its promises have largely remained so.

VRATSA / TULCEA / DNIESTER – Sturgeon fishing - for a species threatened with extinction - has been banned across the entire Danube and Black Sea basin for many years. But a new cross-border investigation proves that illegal fishing practices persist.

TARANTO / TURCENI / PRAGUE - New investigation reveals that the EU's flagship carbon market, meant to cut emissions and drive climate neutrality, is riddled with secrecy. It is also plagued by conflicts of interest and loopholes that let polluters underreport emissions and save millions.

FRIULI / SALZBURG - Europe’s efforts to save the northern bald ibis are undone by rampant poaching in Italy, a deeply rooted social phenomenon that law enforcement fails to tackle.

PARIS / BRUSSELS - This past decade, planting initiatives have grown more and more popular, and in 2020, the EU launched its own, the Three Billion Trees pledge. But as researchers have shown, not all planting projects are equal.

SANTIAGO DE CHILE / ROMA /MADRID - Behind the glossy export numbers of Chilean salmon lies a trail of environmental wreckage, dangerous working conditions, and fish so drenched in antibiotics they could threaten consumers’ health.

LONDON / BRUSSELS - This investigation resulted in creation of what is the most comprehensive map and landfill risk assessment analysis produced publicly of the region to date, revealing the stats and hidden threats these waste sites pose to water, ecosystems, and communities continent-wide.

KOSICE / CALABRIA - Convicted trafficker Antonino Vadalà, long seen in Slovakia as a powerful businessman, re-emerges in a new investigation linking him and partner Diego Rodà to subsidy fraud, ’Ndrangheta ties, and a disrupted cocaine route — all amid fallout from the Kuciak murder case.

MARBELLA - Male influencers push hyper-masculinity, wealth and flashy lifestyles as the path to success. Their polished marketing hides crude truths: empty promises that mislead followers and harmful ideas about gender and power.

BUCHAREST / BARCELONA / MILAN / PARIS – By dropping clothes into collection bins, we often believe to be doing a good deed, “a small gesture that transforms the world”. But does it really? This investigation's findings reveal systemic failures in this presumably sustainable system.

ARKHANGAI - This cross-border investigation reveals that the price paid by European luxury brands for cashmere sourced in Mongolia, is very low compared to their margin and revenues. The benefits accumulate of top of the value chain while Mongolian herders and factories continue to face debts.

BRINDISI / BARCELONA - This investigation focuses on drought issues in Southern Europe and such aspects of it as desalination, EU funding and the market for technological solutions, conflicts of interest and anti-fraud legislation, and environmental concerns.

BRUSSELS / LONDON / PARIS - In this investigation, journalists investigated the role medals awarded by wine competitions play in misleading supermarket consumers over the supposed quality of wines.

WARSAW / BUCHAREST - This investigation exposes the fast-growing aesthetic gynaecology industry, marketed as empowerment and “intimate wellness”, yet operating largely without scientific evidence, regulatory oversight or patient protection.

PRAGUE / VILNIUS - This investigation examines how the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is applied in cases where mothers flee across borders to escape domestic abuse.

KVISTGÅRD - Newly uncovered confidential documents and exclusive testimonies reveal how one of the biggest Scandinavia fluoropolymer users has left behind a toxic legacy in Denmark, a pattern now familiar in many parts of Europe.

ATHENS/ ISTANBUL - Istanbul and Athens are densely populated cities sitting on seismic fault lines. Yet, their disaster preparedness lags behind. The project assesses the cities’ readiness, zooming in on residential buildings and governmental failures to expose patterns of negligence and mismanagement in seismic compliance.

SKOPJE / BELGRADE / SOFIA - Illegal waste disposal and burning pose a significant environmental and public health risk in Southeast Europe, with North Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria being prime examples of this issue. Moreover, criminal waste trafficking close links to other organised crimes.

DOBROGEA/ MORAVIA-SILESIA - Across Europe, public money is fuelling apparently high-tech projects that promise safety, innovation, and inclusion - yet both in Dobrogea and Ostrava, delivery on EU funded projects seems to lag behind the slogans and, in some cases, open up significant security risks.

ATHENS / BERLIN / WARSAW - Prejudice often sows distrust across borders in Central and Eastern Europe, where greed often takes precedence over environmental conservation. However, unique forms of cooperation on urgent environmental issues can reduce and dispel some of these antagonisms.

VENETO / EMILIA-ROMAGNA - After Romania tightened its poaching laws in the Danube Delta, hundreds of fishermen crossed borders in search of work and dignity, settling along Italy’s Po River. But what began as an escape from corruption and collapsing local livelihoods has turned into a paradox.

SAN MARTÍN - This investigation traces the global supply chain of sacha inchi, an Amazonian seed also known as ‘the Inca’s gold’, to expose the mechanisms of modern-day biopiracy.

BERLIN - Across Europe, former Islamic State members live under new identities—undetected and unprosecuted. This cross-border investigation by German and Dutch journalists reveal how suspected ISIS affiliates exploited secret routes, false identities, and legal loopholes to enter and stay in Europe.

DUNKERQUE / PEÑA COLORADA / SANTA CRUZ - This team of journalists investigated the operations of Ternium and ArcelorMittal, two Luxembourg-based steel giants that present themselves as leaders in “sustainable” and “low-carbon” steel.

SOUS/ PARIS – This investigation examines the challenges faced by Berber women as market pressures and climate change threaten the sustainability of argan oil cooperatives in Morocco.

MADRID / LISBON - The investigation reveals why the Iberian rail connection is 15 years behind schedule, and why the new targets are also unlikely to be met.

VICENZA / LOTE PARSHURAM - What happens to a Western chemical plant after it closes down due to causing an environmental disaster? Sometimes it travels to other continents. This investigation reveals how a PFAS factory implicated in an Italian environmental scandal was dismantled and rebuilt in India, where production has resumed.

ISTANBUL / DAMASCUS – This investigation uncovers how Turkey's booming recycled steel industry is fuelled by scrap metal from war-torn countries like Syria. By tracing shipping data and smuggling routes, a shadow trade is revealed connecting Europe's steel supply chain to regional conflicts.

TUSCANY / NARITA – Multi-billion-euro black market in European eels is one of the world’s most lucrative and sophisticated environmental crimes — and it starts in Europe. Smuggled by organised crime groups to Asia via third countries, the trade is pushing the species to the brink of extinction within a decade.

AMSTERDAM / BUDAPEST / SIDNEY – This cross-border investigation examined how the world’s most controversial herbicide secured a ten-year re-approval in the European Union despite mounting scientific and legal concerns.