Staffan Dahllöf

BRUSSELS - How did we come to pay gold for a drug whose effectiveness has not been proven? This is the story of Remdesivir, a drug developed by the American company Gilead Sciences with large public funds to combat Ebola, and in July approved by the European Medicines Agency with "conditional authorisation" as the first antiviral against Covid 19.

TALLINN - The lack of regulation in the voluntary carbon market, together with the influx of capital, creates a situation where ineffective solutions or even outright scams can be marketed. This cross-border investigation looks at how people in Estonia, Lithuania and Italy are exploiting 'green' opportunities for personal gain.

BRUSSELS – A team of investigative journalists led by Voxeurop carried out a cross-border investigation into how the European automotive industry lobby managed to weaken the Euro 7 regulation on new motor vehicle emissions standards.

VILNIUS - Cycling is indispensable in the European Union’s efforts to reduce emissions – this was clear from the European Urban Mobility Framework a year ago. But as policymakers set ambitious targets, transport is emitting more than before, using a third of the EU's energy, and keeping Europe dependent on Russian oil. EU’s structural and cohesion funds come to the rescue – or so it seems from pretty graphs. But when cyclists roll onto cycle paths built with these funds, they find an obstacle course: patchy, poorly maintained, sometimes too narrow paths leading nowhere.

FERLO / KANEM - By tracking billions in funding, visiting remote sites, and speaking with those directly affected, a cross-border team of journalists examined the gap between the Great Green Wall’s grand promises and its on-the-ground reality.

EUROPE - From red deer traces and half wild horses, to ecoducts and tree plantations, till mountain ranges and free flowing rivers. They have something in common: these are the roads and routes that nature uses. 

MODENA — Some EU members states are still allowed to apply high levels of nitrogen to grassland, despite the long-adopted EU’s Water Framework Directive. The investigation contrasts the status of surface water in Ireland, where it is the case, and Italy, and reveals the impact of intensive dairy agriculture on aquatic life.

LECCE - EVIA - The Mediterranean basin is a hotspot of the climate crisis, with average temperatures rising above global trends. Heat waves, droughts and a combination of anthropogenic factors are provoking new generations of wildfires that are devastating for ecosystems and for human societies.

ATHENS / SOFIA / ROME - This project focuses on the real-world dynamics of renewable energy deployment in three key countries in Southern and South-Eastern Europe. Despite their different histories, economies, and regulatory structures, they face surprisingly similar obstacles in their quest of clean, secure, and socially inclusive energy systems.

BONN/BUKAREST/BERN/AMSTERDAM/ATHENS – The future of our food supply is under threat as a high-stakes battle unfolds over seed control in the EU. This cross-border project investigated how companies exploit patent loopholes to demand and sometimes obtain patents from the EPO even on conventionally-bred plants, which are technically protected from patenting by both the EU and EPO laws.

CÁDIZ / AWRE - This investigation delves into the growing push to monetize blue carbon in Spain and the UK, where scientists, NGOs, and financial consultancies are working to quantify the carbon stored in salt marshes and seagrasses to fund their restoration.

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. 

HUELVA – This cross-border investigation exposes the hidden flaws in the European berry market. Tracing the path of the strawberry from field to supermarket, this team of journalists travelled from Huelva to Larache, via Toulouse, to reveal the real human and political origins of what we eat, as revealed by the labels.

HUELVA - Across the southern Iberian Peninsula, plastic greenhouses stretch to the horizon where rain-fed olives, wheat and grapes were traditionally grown. Spain and Portugal are Europe’s main producers of water-intensive berries. But the region is also one of the continent’s driest areas, where droughts are becoming more frequent. Reports have warned Europe’s fruit garden is in danger of becoming a desert before the end of the century.

ACCRA - This investigation puts the spotlight on the use of banned pesticides from Europe in rubber farms in Ghana and other regions across the world, while European development banks, the main funder of such projects turn a blind eye to the environmental, health and safety concerns.