November 2020 Secrets of the council Secrets of the Council The Council of the European Union: 27 Governments. 150 committees. Unnamed diplomats. Secret negotiations. Thousands of paragraphs written into the laws that govern our lives. That is why our team will be following the Council’s proceedings closely, reporting on which governments are blocking or watering down legislative proposals, and with whom they are in league. Discover the full investigation "Secrets of the Council" October 2020 Gas Trap Europe in the Gas Trap Despite Europe's ambitious climate goals, natural gas projects with potentially high methane emissions are being planned across the continent. Discover the full investigation "Europe in the Gas Trap" July 2020 Subsidies Dirty Subsidies: How Europe sabotages its climate goals 2020 was supposed to be the year the EU would launch its ambitious plan to tackle the climate crisis. But why does Europe sabotage its climate goals by subsidising the fossil sector by more than €137 billion per year? Discover the full investigation "Dirty Subsidies: How Europe sabotages its climate goals" May 2020 Vaccines Covid-19: A Vaccine For Us All? The world urgently needs 20 billion doses of a non-existent vaccine. States are throwing huge sums of public money at the race to beat Covid-19, but who will get there first? Will Big Pharma focus on private profit? Will vaccine nationalism prevail, or will the patent be shared? Discover the full investigation "Covid-19: A Vaccine For Us All?" March 2020 Covid-19 Special report: Covid-19 In light of the crisis sweeping Europe, our team has decided to use our position as a cross-border team to look at the political landscape and the different national strategies being followed. Discover the full investigation "Special report: Covid-19" January 2020 Minor migrants Minor migrants: Detained In Europe’s prisons Investigate Europe reveals that minor migrants are detained in shocking prison-like conditions across Europe, without adequate schooling or medical attention. And, they are exposed to abuse. Discover the full investigation "Minor migrants: Detained In Europe’s prisons" October 2019 Inside a troll farm Inside a troll farm For six-months an undercover journalist joined our investigation team looking into disinformation. Working for a commercial troll farm in Warsaw, she and her colleagues managed almost 200 profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, wrote thousands of messages and comments, promoted her clients products and trolled politicians and her clients' competitors. Read our report on what the troll farm work was described internally as the "Lame Rebellion". Discover the full investigation "Inside a troll farm" September 2019 China: rescuer or rival? China: rescuer or rival? The rise of China to an economic superpower poses a strategic dilemma for European governments. The 1.4 billion-people empire in the Far East has become an indispensable part of its economy, as a sales market as well as investor. But with an increasingly bitter trade war between the US and China, Europe is finding itself caught in the middle without a clear and united policy on how it deals with Chinese investment. Discover the full investigation "China: rescuer or rival?" April 2019 The Disinformation machine The disinformation machine The rise of digital platforms has changed the way, and the type of information that is shared faster than society, laws and even politicians can keep up with. Now minor (and often malevolent) actors and political fringe groups have access to a far-reaching medium which can be used to proliferate disinformation and stir resentments of all kind. Discover the full investigation "The disinformation machine" January 2019 The 5G mass experiment 5G: Big promises, unknown risks Are you happy with 4G mobile? You may be, but governments and industry are already looking at the next level - 5G - and the infrastructure for 'smart homes' and the 'internet of things'. According to EU plans, Europe will be hyper-connected by 2025. And why the rush? Discover the full investigation "5G: Big promises, unknown risks" September 2018 Sweatshops on wheels Sweatshops on wheels Big haulage companies exploit drivers from low-wage countries as a business model, often with severe consequences for those behind the wheel. In a process known as social dumping, companies employ migrant workers paying them at a level far below the accepted rate for drivers in the countries they’re working. Discover the full investigation "Sweatshops on wheels" July 2018 Private flights Private jets exempt from data collection law pose crime risk Investigate Europe looks at how a foreseen loophole in the collection of passenger flight details -exempting private jets - could facilitate criminal activity. Discover the full investigation "Private jets exempt from data collection law pose crime risk" May 2018 Blackrock Blackrock – The company that owns the world? There’s a good chance you have never heard of Blackrock. In less than 30 years, this American financial firm has grown from nothing to becoming the world’s largest and most trusted manager of other people’s money. The assets left in their care are worth a staggering 6.3 trillion US dollars – a figure with 12 zeroes. Discover the full investigation "Blackrock – The company that owns the world?" December 2017 Europe’s precariat Race to the bottom: Europe’s precariat Labour contracts without health and social insurance. Involuntary part-time. Fixed-term and agency jobs. Across the continent, millions of Europeans must deal with insecure and low-paid employment, though the economy, overall, is doing better than at any point in the last decade. Discover the full investigation "Race to the bottom: Europe’s precariat" June 2017 Microsoft Europe’s dire dependency on Microsoft All across Europe, from Finland to Portugal, Ireland to Greece, the information technology (IT) of government administrations is based on Microsoft programmes. But because digital systems are constantly growing in both size and importance, countries are becoming ever increasingly dependent on this single corporation. Discover the full investigation "Europe’s dire dependency on Microsoft" December 2016 Europe's border regime Why the European border regime is dysfunctional Military-style command centres, databases of millions of people, massive surveillance through remote-controlled drones, billion-Euro research and national procurement programmes. Far from the public eye, the governments of the European Union are pursuing a weighty long-term plan to use … Discover the full investigation "Why the European border regime is dysfunctional"
November 2020 Secrets of the council Secrets of the Council The Council of the European Union: 27 Governments. 150 committees. Unnamed diplomats. Secret negotiations. Thousands of paragraphs written into the laws that govern our lives. That is why our team will be following the Council’s proceedings closely, reporting on which governments are blocking or watering down legislative proposals, and with whom they are in league. Discover the full investigation "Secrets of the Council"
October 2020 Gas Trap Europe in the Gas Trap Despite Europe's ambitious climate goals, natural gas projects with potentially high methane emissions are being planned across the continent. Discover the full investigation "Europe in the Gas Trap"
July 2020 Subsidies Dirty Subsidies: How Europe sabotages its climate goals 2020 was supposed to be the year the EU would launch its ambitious plan to tackle the climate crisis. But why does Europe sabotage its climate goals by subsidising the fossil sector by more than €137 billion per year? Discover the full investigation "Dirty Subsidies: How Europe sabotages its climate goals"
May 2020 Vaccines Covid-19: A Vaccine For Us All? The world urgently needs 20 billion doses of a non-existent vaccine. States are throwing huge sums of public money at the race to beat Covid-19, but who will get there first? Will Big Pharma focus on private profit? Will vaccine nationalism prevail, or will the patent be shared? Discover the full investigation "Covid-19: A Vaccine For Us All?"
March 2020 Covid-19 Special report: Covid-19 In light of the crisis sweeping Europe, our team has decided to use our position as a cross-border team to look at the political landscape and the different national strategies being followed. Discover the full investigation "Special report: Covid-19"
January 2020 Minor migrants Minor migrants: Detained In Europe’s prisons Investigate Europe reveals that minor migrants are detained in shocking prison-like conditions across Europe, without adequate schooling or medical attention. And, they are exposed to abuse. Discover the full investigation "Minor migrants: Detained In Europe’s prisons"
October 2019 Inside a troll farm Inside a troll farm For six-months an undercover journalist joined our investigation team looking into disinformation. Working for a commercial troll farm in Warsaw, she and her colleagues managed almost 200 profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, wrote thousands of messages and comments, promoted her clients products and trolled politicians and her clients' competitors. Read our report on what the troll farm work was described internally as the "Lame Rebellion". Discover the full investigation "Inside a troll farm"
September 2019 China: rescuer or rival? China: rescuer or rival? The rise of China to an economic superpower poses a strategic dilemma for European governments. The 1.4 billion-people empire in the Far East has become an indispensable part of its economy, as a sales market as well as investor. But with an increasingly bitter trade war between the US and China, Europe is finding itself caught in the middle without a clear and united policy on how it deals with Chinese investment. Discover the full investigation "China: rescuer or rival?"
April 2019 The Disinformation machine The disinformation machine The rise of digital platforms has changed the way, and the type of information that is shared faster than society, laws and even politicians can keep up with. Now minor (and often malevolent) actors and political fringe groups have access to a far-reaching medium which can be used to proliferate disinformation and stir resentments of all kind. Discover the full investigation "The disinformation machine"
January 2019 The 5G mass experiment 5G: Big promises, unknown risks Are you happy with 4G mobile? You may be, but governments and industry are already looking at the next level - 5G - and the infrastructure for 'smart homes' and the 'internet of things'. According to EU plans, Europe will be hyper-connected by 2025. And why the rush? Discover the full investigation "5G: Big promises, unknown risks"
September 2018 Sweatshops on wheels Sweatshops on wheels Big haulage companies exploit drivers from low-wage countries as a business model, often with severe consequences for those behind the wheel. In a process known as social dumping, companies employ migrant workers paying them at a level far below the accepted rate for drivers in the countries they’re working. Discover the full investigation "Sweatshops on wheels"
July 2018 Private flights Private jets exempt from data collection law pose crime risk Investigate Europe looks at how a foreseen loophole in the collection of passenger flight details -exempting private jets - could facilitate criminal activity. Discover the full investigation "Private jets exempt from data collection law pose crime risk"
May 2018 Blackrock Blackrock – The company that owns the world? There’s a good chance you have never heard of Blackrock. In less than 30 years, this American financial firm has grown from nothing to becoming the world’s largest and most trusted manager of other people’s money. The assets left in their care are worth a staggering 6.3 trillion US dollars – a figure with 12 zeroes. Discover the full investigation "Blackrock – The company that owns the world?"
December 2017 Europe’s precariat Race to the bottom: Europe’s precariat Labour contracts without health and social insurance. Involuntary part-time. Fixed-term and agency jobs. Across the continent, millions of Europeans must deal with insecure and low-paid employment, though the economy, overall, is doing better than at any point in the last decade. Discover the full investigation "Race to the bottom: Europe’s precariat"
June 2017 Microsoft Europe’s dire dependency on Microsoft All across Europe, from Finland to Portugal, Ireland to Greece, the information technology (IT) of government administrations is based on Microsoft programmes. But because digital systems are constantly growing in both size and importance, countries are becoming ever increasingly dependent on this single corporation. Discover the full investigation "Europe’s dire dependency on Microsoft"
December 2016 Europe's border regime Why the European border regime is dysfunctional Military-style command centres, databases of millions of people, massive surveillance through remote-controlled drones, billion-Euro research and national procurement programmes. Far from the public eye, the governments of the European Union are pursuing a weighty long-term plan to use … Discover the full investigation "Why the European border regime is dysfunctional"
