Investigation
China suspected of bio-espionage in 'heart of EU'
Chinese spies have targeted Belgian biological warfare experts, vaccine-maker GSK, and other high-tech firms in the country, Belgium's intelligence service suspects.
News in Brief
- Johnson: Shops in UK will reopen on 15 June
- German doctors: Summer holidays could cause second wave
- EU forced to choose between China and US: Borrell
- Spain to lift two-week arrival quarantine from July
- Germany gives Lufthansa €9bn bailout for equity stake
- Volkswagen ordered to pay in landmark 'dieselgate' case
- 40 million health workers urge more G20 investment
- Jourova: Budget rule-of-law link 'more needed than ever'
Investigation
The EU committee's great 'per diem' charade
Around 30 members of European Economic Social Committee, who live and work primarily in Brussels or nearby, have claimed €1.47m in a 'daily subsistence' allowance from European taxpayers to cover accommodation, food and local transport for meetings held in Brussels.
Investigation
How Apple lobbied EU to delay common smartphone charger
iPhones and Android products don't use the same charger. This is annoying for consumers and harmful for the environment. Old chargers produce more than 51,000 tons of electronic waste per year.
Investigation
EU agencies tested monitoring data on refugees
As debate around the issue of contact-tracing grows, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals that the new science of predicting and monitoring population movements is already here – and EU agencies have been testing it on refugees and migrants.
Feature
How corporate lobbyists steer EU law-making
Former EUobserver investigations editor Peter Teffer has written a new book about how lobbying in the EU works. The EU's focus on the internal market offers corporate lobbyists a perfect means to forward their interests.
Investigation
G4S: the EU's preferred security contractor
The British multinational security company G4S lost its contract with the European Parliament in 2011 in a backlash from MEPs over alleged abuses in Israel. Today, they guard the parliament's main entrance and have become the EU's top security provider.
Investigation
Revealed: little evidence to justify internal border checks
EUobserver has obtained notification reports from five European states explaining why they want to impose internal border checks. Few provide any substantial evidence to justify the controls, putting the European Commission in a difficult position to end them.
Investigation
Data watchdog raps EU asylum body for snooping
The European Asylum Support Office combed through social media to monitor refugee routes to Europe for three years. The agency sent weekly reports on its findings to member states, the EU Commission and institutions such as UNHCR and Interpol.
Pesticide chlorpyrifos banned by EU
EU member states have voted to ban from the market chlorpyrifos, a pesticide which is toxic to the brain in both its forms, and has been the subject of a long-running Le Monde and EUobserver investigation.
Migrants paying to get detained in Libyan centres
A trend has emerged over the past few months where desperate people are paying to get locked up in Libyan detention centres to escape the conflict and with the hope they stand a better chance of getting resettled to Europe.
Investigation
Blood from stone: What did British PR firm do for Malta?
British PR firm Chelgate worked for the Maltese government on the case of murdered journalist Caruana Galizia, three well-placed sources have told EUobserver.
Investigation
MEPs slam Commission over common charger delay
Citing an EUobserver investigation, MEPs on the consumer protection committee have slammed the EU Commission for allowing Apple to get away with refusing to comply with a common smartphone charger for over a decade.
EU nominees: Where did Suica's millions come from?
Questions about family wealth and EU values continue to hang over Croatia's European Commission nominee, Dubravka Suica, ahead of next week's parliamentary hearings.
Investigation
EU institution beset by harassment claims
Insiders at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the EU's smallest institution, have described a culture-of-fear environment in the workplace, in the wake of the probationary appointment of its newest secretary-general.
Investigation
Macron's carbon border tax - why hasn't he done anything?
The French president has repeatedly said an EU border tax on carbon emissions is 'crucial'. However, his civil servants have yet to send Brussels a single proposal on how such a levy would work.
Investigation
The most dangerous pesticide you've never heard of
Scientists say there is no acceptable dose to avoid brain damage. Its use is banned in several European countries. Yet its residues are found in fruit baskets, on dinner plates, and in human urine samples from all over Europe.
Investigation
How the EU commission got tunnel vision on self-driving cars
Companies like the Boston Consulting Group, Google and Uber are pushing the EU to join the race for autonomous (self-driving) cars. But one key question is missing from the debate: should we?
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Latest News
- How Kaczyński ruined Poland, judges tell MEPs
- EU data protection rules abused to censor media
- Draft EU 'green recovery' plan amid clash over natural gas
- Clock is ticking: 300,000 vs 3.3m Covid-19 Africa deaths?
- Recovery plans unveiled This WEEK
- EU and UK stumbling into Irish border crisis
- Malta patrol boat 'intimidates' capsized migrants
- How coronavirus might hit EU defence spending
Exclusive
Despite pledge, Katainen met lobbyists without taking notes
Finland's EU commissioner, Jyrki Katainen told EUobserver in February his cabinet members "always" takes notes when he meets lobbyists. They did not on at least seven occasions, when talking about artificial intelligence.
Investigation
Cyprus: Russia's EU weak link?
Five years and €10bn after its EU bailout, Cyprus is a weak link in Europe's banking system - amid renewed fears on Russia money-laundering.
Investigation
EU milk aid to Syria: a 'Kafkaesque' story
The EU commission, in a novel approach back in 2015, linked EU agriculture policy to humanitarian aid. Did it work?
Investigation
EU paid Italy at least €200,000 for migrant stunt
Italy's far-right interior minister was happy to use EU funds to escort the Aquarius rescue boat to Spain, while boasting he was "closing down the ports" to migrants.
Investigation
EU Commission paying too much for iPhones and IT
EUobserver has obtained internal documents and emails from within the European Commission that outline questionable contracts with outside suppliers who appear to be overcharging for goods and services.
Investigation
How a US firm pushed for EU €2.1trn pension fund
A huge cross-border personal pension fund is being prepared by the EU - in the wake of suggestions from the world's largest asset fund manager BlackRock.
Investigation
How to get around the EU posted workers directive
Some EU careworkers in Belgium receive around €400 a month - despite their carers paying €2,500 a month and paying for flights and accommodation. The answer lies in how firms can skirt the safeguards in the EU's posted workers directive.
Investigation
EU passes new rules to prevent far-right funding abuses
Political funding of European parties is being overhauled ahead of the European parliament elections next year. The latest rules will cut funding for smaller parties, with an aim to squeeze out duplication and over-representation of the far right.
Investigation
Tory and National Front websites hid Facebook tracking pixel
At least 11 European political parties, two EU agencies, and the Nordic Council have a controversial tracking pixel on their website.
Investigation
After 12 years, EU gives up on CO2 storage aid to China
An EU-China project on CO2 storage, dating back to 2005, has delivered few results, raising questions for cooperation in 2018.
Investigation
The ECB: EU's 'bad bank' (for its employees)
An internal report finds 'lack of staff' and high 'burnout' levels at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt - the bank trusted with keeping the eurozone stable and secure.
Investigation
How Romania became an EU workers' rights 'guinea pig'
"We are paid as if we were a country of unqualified workers". Union leaders and labour rights experts reveal, in figures, the catastrophic consequences of the laws that have turned Romania into the country of the working poor.
Investigation
The mysterious German behind Orban's Russian deals
Klaus Mangold, a German businessman with good connections in Russia, and who provided a jet for Commission vice-president Guenther Oettinger, played a crucial role in Hungary's controversial Paks nuclear deal with Russia, Direkt36's investigation has found.
Investigation
EU states copy Israel's 'predictive policing'
Israelis are using social profiling and predictive policing, also known as 'Facebook arrests', to crack down on suspects in Palestinian territories. National authorities in the EU, including the EU's police agency, Europol, are now applying the tactics closer to home.
Investigation
After spending €587 million, EU has zero CO2 storage plants
The EU has spent at least €587 million so far on carbon capture and storage, and was willing to spend millions more. However, after a decade not a single power plant in the EU is currently using the technology.
Investigation
Commission still silent on Hungarian nuclear contract
The EU executive has still not explained why it accepted that a contract with Russia to extend the Paks plant could be awarded without a public tender, and why commissioner Oettinger travelled with a lobbyist working for the Hungarian government.
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