BRUSSELS – Across Europe, the wolf population is growing, but so is resistance. Between the numbers, the political and public debate threatens to impact science. Accurate monitoring of the animals is crucial, not only for counting them, but also for understanding how conservation works.
Coal at the Crossroads: Pollution vs Green Transition
NOVACI / OBRENOVAC / BERLIN - In the Macedonian village of Novaci, next to the REK Bitola coal complex, daily life is defined by constant dust and noise. The plant has reliably generated almost two-thirds of the country's electricity for decades. Its legacy is one of pollution and stalled ...
The Slow Suffocation of Europe’s Mediterranean Deltas
PO RIVER DELTA/ EBRO DELTA - This investigation documents how fertiliser runoff from the Ebro and Po river basins drains into the Mediterranean, fuelling harmful algal blooms and impacting the people and local economies in those deltas.
ONLINE / OLTENIA REGION / HUNEDOARA / PRAHOVA - This is a pioneering investigative journalism project that marks a premiere in the Romanian media landscape: the first coordinated cross-regional collaboration among hyperlocal newsrooms for anti-corruption investigations in the EU Just Transition.
MINSK - In this investigation, journalists based in five different European countries investigate ties between the EU and Belarus, with a closer look on how far political, economical and social connections have been impacted by the war in Ukraine.
BENZDORP/PARAMARIBO - Deep in the Amazon rainforest, on the banks of the Lawa River between Suriname and French Guiana, live the Wayana. The peaceful existence of this indigenous population came to an abrupt end in 1885, when gold was discovered in the region. Since then, the presence of outsiders ...
EU Funds Meant for Inclusion are Fuelling Roma Marginalisation
NYÍREGYHÁZA/ LAMEZIA/ SOFIA/ JANOV - What happens when public money intended to dismantle inequality reinforces it? This investigation explores how one of Europe's most marginalised communities experiences policies designed in their name, without their participation.
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.
Zero homeless people by 2030: ambitious or hypocritical?
BRUSSELS - In 2021, the European Union decided that it wants to end homelessness by 2030. Belgium also signed up to this goal. During the Belgian Presidency of the European Council at the beginning of last year, our country organised a conference in Brussels entitled “Towards zero homelessness, only ...
Europe Wants to Plant Billions of Trees. What Kind of Trees?
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.
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.
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.
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 ...
Mobile-Tracking Technologies and Intelligence Agencies in Serbia and Slovenia
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.
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.
The Cashmere Thread From Mongolia to Luxury Fashion
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.
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.