Investigate Europe

About the network

Investigate Europe (IE) started in 2016 as a pilot project led by nine European journalists who came together to try something unheard of – a journalistic collaboration that runs across borders, national discourses, and the rapid news cycle of legacy media.

Since then, the team has continued to grow and its research has expanded. Investigate Europe’s experienced reporters come from Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK. Their working method is to investigate simultaneously, share all the information and report in their respective national media after counter-checking the facts and possible national bias.

At the core of Investigate Europe’s work are the months-long in-depth investigations. Its current team of 16 journalists from 12 countries agree on important research question, share results, and adapt the common core findings to their own national contexts. Once the investigation is complete, the reporters publish the results with media outlets in their local language.

Each investigation is also accompanied by common publications via IE’s own multi-lingual channels that have by now gained a significant readership. This unique way of working helps the readers understand Europe better, providing them a critical, deepened perspective on national and continent-wide affairs.

Projects

Investigate Europe recently reported on the major plastic crisis in Europe as part of Wasteland, an investigation that exposed failures in the EU’s efforts to create a circular economy and detailed how uncontrolled production and use are leading to a plastic waste crisis across the continent.

The network also published #PerencoFiles, an in-depth investigation into the Franco-British oil and gas company Perenco. The company describes itself as “Europe’s leading independent oil and gas group”. It operates in 14 countries worldwide, including Europe’s largest onshore oil farm in England and several gas platforms in the North Sea – but faced nearly no public scrutiny until Investigate Europe published the first results together with its French collaboration partner Disclosed. They have uncovered cases of environmental pollution and related corruption.

On GreyGold, Investigate Europe exposed the situation of nursing homes in Europe, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when elderly people and their relatives had terrible experiences with understaffed and overworked caregivers, and the situation in nursing homes became a threat to the lives of residents. Journalists have proven that international corporations and financial investors are making huge profits while there is a shortage of caregivers almost everywhere, and while the number of people in need of care continues to rise.

Together with Follow the Money, at Blackrock, they investigated the power of the American financial firm that has become the world’s largest and most trusted steward of other people’s money. Reporters looked at how much and where Blackrock invests in Europe and how this enormous financial power exerts its influence and what the consequences are for European companies and their employees.

Contact

Website: https://www.investigate-europe.eu/en/
Name: Peter Matjašič
Email: mail@investigate-europe.eu