Investigate Europe

10/04/2025

We’re in Perugia this week for the International Journalism Festival, and we're thrilled to announce that our Deadly Prices investigation has been nominated for the European Press Prize! 👏

Investigate Europe coordinated the investigation and collaborated with Süddeutsche Zeitung and 25 other media partners. The announcement was just made at the festival, the world’s largest journalism gathering. We’re proud to be shortlisted alongside 25 impressive projects, selected from 810 submissions.

Deadly Prices is one of our most ambitious cross-border investigations to date. We uncovered the deep inequalities in access to essential medicines across Europe — and the systemic reasons behind them. This nomination recognises the hard work of our entire team and the importance of shining a light on issues that affect millions across the continent.

🏆 Winners will be announced at the Award Ceremony in Bari, Italy, on 28 May.

🔍 Read the full Deadly Prices investigation via the link in the bio!

🤝 😃 If you’re also in Perugia, let’s meet!

21/03/2025

⚽ Revealed: how gambling embedded itself into European football

Almost 300 top-flight European football clubs have signed contracts with betting providers for the 2024/25 season. One in three clubs has a gambling sponsor on their shirts, and almost half of all leagues rely on gambling or lottery companies as their ‘title sponsor’.

Our new investigation details how the gambling industry has infiltrated all corners of the European game.

Despite restrictions being introduced in some countries, clubs in Belgium and Italy are exploiting loopholes to maintain betting logos on their kits, the investigation finds. Other clubs are profiting from partnerships with opaque international brands and operators based in offshore jurisdictions.

Read the full story as part of our investigation: https://www.investigate-europe.eu/posts/revealed-how-gambling-betting-industry-sponsors-european-football

18/03/2025

🎰 Shady bets: How Europe’s gambling industry spun out of control

Our new investigation uncovers unlicensed websites, offshore secrecy and a growing public health crisis in online gambling. It also details how the industry operates in a void of EU regulation. It is a collaboration with media from 11 countries, exposing the spin of Europe's multibillion-euro betting industry.

Investigate Europe exposes:

⚠️ The EU’s regulatory void — Online gambling revenues soared 200% between 2018-2023, hitting €20 billion, yet no EU-wide laws govern the sector.

⚠️ The hidden underworld — Unregulated operators thrive, with one expert calling it an “iceberg marketplace”—what’s legal is just the tip; below lurks criminality.

⚠️ Big names, blacklisted sites — Soft2bet, an award-winning betting group, is linked to 114 blacklisted gambling websites operating without licenses. One of its brands is even a betting partner of Italian football giant AC Milan. (Soft2bet denies any wrongdoing.)

⚠️Meanwhile, Malta remains a haven. A little-known law protects the world’s biggest betting firms from multi-million euro claims. Lawyers say it violates EU law.

Read it here:

Glitzy offers and bonus bets lure in millions to online gambling every day. Yet behind the crafted promotions lies a different reality. One defined by unlicensed operations, offshore accounts and a growing public health crisis.

14/03/2025

🎰 Dozens of blacklisted gambling sites linked to award-winning European firm 

Investigate Europe has uncovered a vast network of unlicensed gambling websites operating across the continent—all linked to the award-winning Soft2Bet group.

Despite being blacklisted in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, these platforms continue to attract millions of players every month. Some have even secured sponsorship deals with major football clubs like AC Milan.

Soft2Bet denies any wrongdoing.

🔎 Read the full story in our   investigation—Link in bio.

21/01/2025

📢 Value of public interest journalism: exploring the relationship with whistleblowing

Join the Journalism Value Project for an inspiring discussion with top experts and practitioners as we dive into the critical role of whistleblowing in public interest journalism.

🎙 Speakers:
✨ Anna Myers, executive director of Whistleblowing International Network (WIN)
✨ Simona Levi, founder of Xnet
✨ Dr. Vigjilenca Abazi, co-founder & executive director of European Whistleblowing Institute (EWI)
✨ Vladimir Radomirović, editor-in-chief of Pištaljka

🗣 Moderator: Peter Matjašič, executive director of Investigate Europe

🗓 When? 27 January
⏰ Time? 16:00 CET

🔗 Register now! Link in bio!

03/12/2024

Today, on , we are delighted to launch our end-of-year fundraising campaign. This is an opportunity to support long-term, impactful journalism that sheds light on the most important issues facing Europe today.

🤝 Your donation will help us:
- Fund in-depth investigative reporting
- Expand our reach and impact across multiple countries
- Support a dedicated team of journalists and researchers

👉 Donate now and help us connect the dots on Europe: https://lnkd.in/dRQeC8gz

🎬 Hear from our team why your donation matters.

24/10/2024

📣We are hiring! 📣 Are you an experienced journalist with an eye for compelling investigative stories? Investigate Europe is looking for a Coordinating Editor to join its team.

As Coordinating Editor, you will be responsible for coordinating cross-border investigations, liaising with media partners, editing investigative stories and developing new ideas. If you have strong expertise in in-depth projects and have worked in national or international newsrooms, we want to hear from you.

🚨To apply, please email your cover letter, CV and three recent examples of investigations to [email protected] by Friday 6 December 2024.

Don't miss this opportunity to be part of a dynamic team doing meaningful investigative journalism across Europe. Find out more here: https://www.investigate-europe.eu/opportunities/671a07807cbe5f114a06fd7f

24/10/2024

💊🚨 Does the pharma industry dictate the price of life?

Join us in discussing : A webinar featuring experts, patients, and journalists who will shine a light on the opaque truths behind unequal drug pricing access to life saving medicines across .

📅 Date: 7 November (Thursday) 🕒 Time: 15:30 CET

🎙️ Speakers:

▪️Eliana Barrenho, health economist and analyst at OECD - OCDE.

▪️Wilbert Bannenberg from the Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation.

▪️Gayle P., co-founder of , an advocacy group defending access to cysticfibrosis treatments.

▪️Eurydice Bersi, one of the coordinators for our investigation.

Event moderated by Maxence Peigné who contributed to the unique data on the cost value of that forms the backbone of the investigation.

🔗 [Register here] https://lnkd.in/dnAuFcsh

👀 Read the investigation backing this event: https://lnkd.in/dbQ-9pM4

18/10/2024

🎉 We are honoured to be finalists for the inaugural Global Media Awards 2024, organised by Save the Children International, recognising global media for their outstanding coverage of children's challenges and successes.

We are nominated with our article "France and the Netherlands lobbied for the detention of children at borders from birth in the EU migration pact", written by Harald Schumann, Leïla Minano, Maria Maggiore and Pascal Hansens.

The team revealed how France, along with other governments, secretly lobbied for stricter measures in the EU asylum and migration pact that would have allowed the detention of migrant children at borders from birth.

Read the story here ➡ https://lnkd.in/dTCf2zEx

Congratulations to the other nominees and read more about their projects: https://lnkd.in/dTsXrfyg

The winners will be announced at a virtual event on hashtag 's Day, 20 November. Stay tuned!🤞

25/09/2024

📣 Investigate Europe analysis has found that in more than 40 cases the European Commission has so far let governments off the hook for infringement violations – the penalty process the institution uses if it suspects wrongdoing. In some instances, proceedings have dragged on more than a decade, even after the European Court of Justice determined wrongdoing.

As of 1 July 2024, Investigate Europe identified 44 cases against 15 member states where in a first ruling the CJEU had determined that governments had breached EU law. Of these, 33 relate to rules on climate, biodiversity and water quality.

“The Commission should ensure that all adopted EU laws are fully enforced in all member states, but it is not doing so,” says Green MEP Daniel Freund, who believes the institution is “systematically failing to fulfil its role as guardian of the treaty”.

Read our latest report via the link in the bio!☝

18/09/2024

📣 Investigate Europe's Eurydice Bersi was a speaker at the - Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) that started yesterday in Geneva.

She presented the main findings of our investigation, with some insights into the industry in Europe uncovered during her work.

She joined a panel of experts from various cancer research and health rights institutions as they discuss affordable access and transparency in medicines throughout .

Find out more about : https://www.investigate-europe.eu/themes/investigations/deadly-prices-europe-big-pharma-medicines

14/09/2024

The extent of the relationships between patient charities and the pharmaceutical industry has remained largely unknown – until now. A new investigation by Investigate Europe can reveal that drug companies poured €110 million into groups in the EU, Norway, Switzerland and the UK in 2022. The likes of Pfizer, Novo Nordisk and AstraZeneca are funding everything from advocacy and campaigning to media projects and podcasts, reigniting concerns about industry influence over the sector.

Critics argue that funding threatens “independence” of the sector. Patient groups and industry deny any such influence exists and many organisations say the funds are needed due to dwindling public sector support.

Read the latest dispatch of here: https://www.investigate-europe.eu/posts/deadly-prices-drug-firms-pharmaceuticals-finance-europe-patient-groups-charities-110-million-euros

03/09/2024

📣 Don't miss our latest investigation ! Big pharma is reluctant to develop new antibiotics due to high costs and low profits. Now, the EU is proposing billions in subsidies to tempt them into action.

Read the story: https://www.investigate-europe.eu/posts/deadly-prices-antibiotic-defences-ukraine-war-reignites-concerns-global-bacteria-resistance

27/08/2024

📣Don't miss our latest investigation !

Higher-income countries are more willing and able to pay for medicines, meaning they offer a more attractive market and have a better negotiating hand, while lower-income countries’ greater budgetary constraints reduce their bargaining power. The result is unequal access to medicines across Europe, with life-saving medicines out of reach in some countries. At the same time, pharmaceutical companies are reporting huge profits, often from medicines that were developed in their early stages with public money.

Read more here: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/big-pharmaceuticals-confidentiality-agreements-medicines-investigation-unequal-access-europe/

20/08/2024

📣 Don't miss our latest investigation ! We found that rich countries often pay less for vital treatments due to secret price deals with pharma executives. Officials are forced to agree to medicine prices in an “absurd” system that allows them very little knowledge of development costs: https://www.investigate-europe.eu/it/posts/deadly-prices-medicine-dealers-europe-secret-drug-negotiations

13/08/2024

📣 Don't miss our latest investigation !
Investigate Europe analysed the last five years of accounts filed by the 15 largest American and European pharmaceutical groups and found 1,300 subsidiaries in tax havens. The true number is likely higher, as reporting rules force multinationals to only list “significant undertakings. This fortune amassed by big pharma in Europe is in stark contrast with local access inequality and struggling healthcare budgets. Such is the case for Ireland, where despite luring drugmakers with its fiscal perks, Irish patients are often waiting longer than their western European peers to get innovative and lifesaving drugs: https://www.investigate-europe.eu/posts/deadly-prices-pharma-firms-stash-profits-in-europes-tax-havens-as-patients-struggle-with-drug-prices

09/08/2024

🎥 "You'll find companies holding their patent rights in Bermuda, Ireland, Switzerland."

Paul Fehlner used to be head of intellectual property (IP) at Novartis, one of the world's largest pharma groups, based in Switzerland. As an IP expert, he knows how patents can be used by companies to lower their taxes and maximise their profits.

Read the story here: https://www.investigate-europe.eu/posts/deadly-prices-pharma-firms-stash-profits-in-europes-tax-havens-as-patients-struggle-with-drug-prices