Supported projects

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.

ANTWERP - Hugo Schiltz is the most important Flemish nationalist of the 20th century. He grew up in a strict Catholic and radical Flemish nationalist environment and joined the collaboration at the age of fourteen. He quickly overcame the trauma of that collaboration and his imprisonment, after ...

BELGRADE/ LJUBLJANA - Leaked internal documents from the Swiss surveillance company NeoSoft reveal that Serbia’s Security Intelligence Agency (BIA) explored the purchase of a covert portable IMSI catcher known as the NS Backpack.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

BAHIA / CREMONA - This investigation uncovers how a coalition of timber traders and representatives from the musical instrument industry has been lobbying governments in Europe and worldwide to reject the proposal or to water down existing measures.

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.

RESISTENCIA / FLORENCE - This investigation exposes how a lucrative tannin supply chain, rooted in Argentina’s Gran Chaco region thrives due to weak oversight and systematic deforestation. Follow the journey of timber from endangered dry forests to factories and luxury brands that profit from it.

THESSALY / EMILIA-ROMAGNA - This investigation examined how Italy and Greece, two Mediterranean countries hit hard by recent floods, are reshaping disaster recovery by shifting more responsibility onto private insurance.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

LONGYEARBYEN - Svalbard, once an isolated destination for researchers and miners, is increasingly visited by tourists. Climate change, easier accessibility, and ‘last chance’ tourism have driven rapid growth in visitor numbers. This puts pressure on the fragile ecosystem and raises questions about ...

POPPEL - Dutch tractors cross the border day and night via small sandy roads to refuel more cheaply in Belgium. Since the Netherlands abolished the tax benefit for red diesel in 2013, cross-border trade has flourished with hardly any controls.