Investigation
Computer says No: How the EU's AI laws cause new injustice
EU proposal to let Big Tech organise algorithms for the public sector is creating a dangerous but invisible injustice.
News in Brief
- Italy arrests Puigdemont on Spanish warrant
- EU and US hold trade talks despite French wrath
- EMA to decide on Pfizer vaccine booster in October
- EU welcomes Polish TV-station move
- Ukrainian parliament passes law to curb power of oligarchs
- EU could force Poland to pay lignite-coal fine
- Report: EU and US concerned by tech-giants' power
- EU states sign 'transparency pledge'
Investigation
The perfect crime? Pesticides - low risk, minimal sanctions
If you want to make money outside the law, forget guns, drugs, alcohol or cigarettes. Trade in illegal pesticides combines high profits with lower risks.
Investigation
France opposed guidelines on EU presidency sponsorships
Internal document shows diplomats questioned whether the secretariat of the Council of the EU was legally allowed to write guidelines on the financing of the six-month rotating EU presidency activities.
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.
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: loopholes letting EU firms 'break' arms embargoes
Most arms deals include "post-sale services", such as training, maintenance and know-how. Often up to 50 percent of the value of a multi-year arms contract is related to post-sale services, which leave companies with an unseen stake in controversial conflicts.
Investigation
Moscow using far right to infiltrate EU parliament
There is a is a clear security threat for the European Parliament that needs to be urgently addressed.
Investigation
Conflict of interest at heart of country-by-country reporting
President of the Portuguese Business Confederation, António Saraiva, is at the heart of an apparent conflict of interests.
Investigation
Exposed: French complicity in Yemen and Libya
French defence companies are providing training to Saudis on weapons that France's own military intelligence says puts almost 500,000 people in Yemen at risk. Meanwhile, new evidence has emerged of the French-built Mirage fighter jet being used in Libya.
Investigation
EU money used by neo-Nazi to promote Holocaust denial
A prominent Holocaust-denier has made the cover of an EU-funded newsletter, which was published by an avowed German neo-Nazi with a lengthy criminal record. The lack of clear labelling of the MEP behind it violates European Parliament rules.
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.
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Latest News
- Activists: 'More deaths' expected on Polish-Belarus border
- EU unveils common charger plan - forcing Apple redesign
- Central Europe leaders rail against 'new liberal woke virus'
- Yemen's refugees in 'appalling conditions', says UN agency
- VW emissions software was illegal, top EU lawyer says
- Sexism and the selection of the European Parliament president
- More French names linked to Russia election-monitoring
- Negotiations set for new, tougher, EU ethics body
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 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 college defends Saudi-style visits, attacks 'sloppy' media
College of Europe rector Jorg Monar says the surplus money made from setting up closed-door meetings between the Saudi government and EU officials, including MEPs, "would barely cover the replacement costs of a beamer in a College seminar room."
Investigation
Saudis paying College of Europe to lobby MEPs
The Bruges-based College of Europe is setting up private meetings with the EU institutions for seven ambassadors plus seven high-level officials from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
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?
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.
