Simon Van Dorpe

Denk niet dat iemand ooit beweerd heeft dat hij een 4D schaker was 😅 (in tegenstelling tot wat misschien gedacht werd over Putin). Maar het blijft verbazen

Merz accepts a harder world on Iran | Euractiv Downplaying the weight of international law, the German chancellor signals that Berlin may be adjusting to a great-power order shaped by Washington rather than rules

An alarming and telling admission by German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who seems to be going along with the Trump administration's open disregard of international law. www.euractiv.com/news/merz-ac...

‘Divide and conquer’: U.S. businesses bully Brussels into weakening supply chain rules The EU’s flagship corporate sustainability law has been massively scaled back following industry pushback. Leaked documents shared with Follow the Money reveal how a secretive U.S. lobby piled pressur...

Big corporations. Big influence.

An EU law meant to hold corporations accountable for human rights and environmental abuses in their supply chains (CS3D) has been heavily stripped back after pressure from a secret U.S. lobbying group of 11 multinationals, including ExxonMobil and Honeywell.

🔥 The Belgian Competition Authority has opened an own-initiative investigation into Google's online advertising practices www.bma-abc.be/sites/defaul...

Newsletter | New Parliament working group to review internal spending rules Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism

⚖️ In this week’s Crime & Corruption newsletter:

- The European Parliament quietly rethinks its internal spending rules
- Heated fallout from the latest Qatargate ruling
- Raids over a €900m Brussels property deal, plus fresh charges in the Didier Reynders probe

Podcast | The lottery scandal that shook Brussels As the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders was tasked with defending the rule of law across the EU. But days after leaving office, his home was raided as part of a money laundering prob...

𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 | 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗕𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘀

He defended the rule of law as EU Justice Commissioner. Days after leaving office, Didier Reynders’ home was raided in a money-laundering probe.

What happened? Journalist @simonvandorpe.bsky.social unpacks the story. ⚖️

Newsletter | New Parliament working group to review internal spending rules Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism

🔥 In this morning's crime and corruption newsletter: some heated reactions following last week's judgement in the #Qatargate investigation:

www.ftm.eu/articles/new...

This would make sense, especially considering the European Commission's increasingly outspoken political profile.

Follow the Money is phasing out U.S. tech – follow the journey We report critically on Europe’s dependence on Big Tech – yet our own platform still relies heavily on U.S. systems. It’s time to change that. Together with De Correspondent, we’re phasing out U.S. te...

After years reporting on Europe’s dependence on Big Tech, we’re making a vital shift: phasing out U.S. tech and moving to European alternatives. With rising geopolitical tensions and risks tied to foreign cloud infrastructure, this is about protecting our journalism, security, and independence.

Shilling for Trump in Brussels: A document we obtained shows how Tony Blair and his institute lobbied behind closed doors for the EU to join Trump's "Board of Peace" and put €€€ behind US- and Israeli-led Gaza reconstruction efforts.

Published with Democracy for Sale, ht @lighthousereports.com

Newsletter | Uphill court battle awaits consultancy blacklisted by the EU Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism

Today in @ftm.eu's crime and corruption newsletter:

⚖️ One of the EU's largest contractors has challenged its exclusion from EU tenders in court.

⚖️ NATO's procurement agency has entered 2026 under the shadow of a new corruption investigation.

⚖️ Plenty of news updates

www.ftm.eu/articles/new...

EU schorst adviesbureau na nieuw gesjoemel Een adviesbureau dat bijna 350 miljoen euro aan contracten van de Europese Commissie binnenharkte, zit opnieuw in de problemen. Vanwege vermeend ‘ernstig professioneel wangedrag’ mag het bedrijf twee ...

Honderden miljoenen aan EU-geld werden toevertrouwd aan IBF International Consulting. Nu wordt het adviesbureau verdacht van corruptie en witwassen. De Europese Commissie trok de stekker eruit, partners stappen op en de alarmbellen luiden.

Maar hoe kon het zo ver komen?
www.ftm.nl/artikelen/eu...

EU suspends major aid consultancy – again – in fresh blow to scandal-hit firm IBF International Consulting – a firm that has won substantial development aid contracts from the European Commission – is once again facing scrutiny in Brussels. The company has been banned from bidd...

Read the full story for free today on Follow the Money EU (3/3)

www.ftm.eu/articles/eu-...

With @emmaduchatinier.bsky.social and @irpimedia.eu

This move is paralyzing one of the EU's key framework contracts for external action and casts uncertainty on IBF's future, as the company remains under criminal investigation by European prosecutors. (2/3)

⚡ The European Commission has once again suspended IBF International Consulting from bidding on new EU tenders for two years due to alleged "grave professional misconduct." IBF has challenged the decision before the EU General Court. (1/3)

Sad to say, but I would no longer be surprised if he did

Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism Radically independent investigative journalism. Our goal is crystal clear: to uncover the truth in the interest of society.

Follow the Money want to build a strong European edition that is read, trusted, and supported across Europe.

JOB ALERT: As Growth & Partnerships Manager at @ftm.eu, you will strengthen the business foundations that sustain our European journalism.

Half an hour later…

Who needs corruption indices when you can just read who signed up for Trump's peace board 🤷‍♂️

Telegram’s battle with European regulators could force it to hire thousands of content moderators to tackle illegal content. Documents obtained by Follow the Money show how Telegram is trying to fend off tougher oversight from Brussels.

www.ftm.eu/articles/tel...

Newsletter | Who in Europe will call out Trump’s lawlessness? Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism

⚖️ Our first Crime & Corruption newsletter of 2026 is anything but quiet. This week:

Trump’s capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro puts Europe in a bind over the rule of law; AI dominates talks at the UN anti-corruption conference in Doha; and Europe watches as Marine Le Pen’s appeal trial begins.

Certified failure? EU-funded battery training rewards learners for 0% test scores Backed by millions in EU funding, clean tech company InnoEnergy claims it has trained more than 100,000 people to work in Europe’s battery industry. But some of its courses can be completed in minutes...

🪫 Fancy becoming a battery expert in a few clicks?

InnoEnergy used EU taxpayer money to boast claims it trained over 100,000 people.

But FTM found flawed figures, counting certificates not people, including failed or incomplete courses, and even children playing an educational Minecraft game.

Gas, lies, and videotape: How a gas project in Bulgaria brought chaos to EU’s anti-corruption body A corruption probe into a strategically important Bulgarian gas project – designed to loosen Europe’s dependence on Russian energy and long opposed by Moscow – has descended into chaos. A kompromat ca...

A key EU project meant to wean Europe off Russian gas has been derailed. So has the corruption probe into it, exposing failures in Bulgaria and at EU level.

At the heart of the case are corruption allegations, a sudden death, a smear campaign against the prosecutor, and her suspension.

Euroclear! I used to work there at a time it was still an anonymous layer of the financial architecture

Power prefers silence. We don’t.

Our members make our investigations possible. Reaching 50,000 by December means more video reporting, a new disinformation series, cross-border investigations, and 1,000 gifted memberships to keep journalism accessible.

Support FTM today: www.ftm.eu/powertoaccou...

EU Opens Google Antitrust Probe Over AI Use of Online Content Google has been hit by a European Union investigation over fears it may have abused its dominance by using its own artificial intelligence tools to squeeze out competition.

New: Google has been hit by a European Union investigation over fears it may have abused its dominance by using its own artificial intelligence tools to squeeze out competition: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Israel’s biggest defence company suspended by NATO amid corruption probe Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons firm, is implicated in a widening NATO corruption scandal. The military alliance’s procurement agency (NSPA) has suspended the company from bidding on new contr...

💣 Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons firm, is implicated in a widening NATO corruption scandal. The military alliance’s procurement agency (NSPA) has suspended the company from bidding on new contracts.

www.ftm.eu/articles/isr...

Israel’s biggest defence company suspended by NATO amid corruption probe Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons firm, is implicated in a widening NATO corruption scandal. The military alliance’s procurement agency (NSPA) has suspended the company from bidding on new contr...

💥 NEW: Israel’s largest defence company, Elbit Systems, has been suspended by NATO’s procurement agency amid a major corruption probe. Belgian police are looking for an Elbit consultant suspected of corruption and criminal organisation www.ftm.eu/articles/isr...

new: Mogherini resigns as College of Europe rector amid fraud probe www.euractiv.com/news/mogheri...