PULSE - Europe beyond the beat

PULSE is an initiative for cross-border collaborative journalism in Europe

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Degrees and politicians: The transparency of elites is under pressure across Europe

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Il Sole 24 Ore

Political figures across Europe face scrutiny over falsified credentials, sparking wider debate on elite transparency.

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[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

In recent years across various European countries, including Athens, Madrid, Bucharest, Berlin, Rome, Paris, and Warsaw, there has been a recurring public debate concerning the verification and accuracy of academic qualifications for politicians and officials. Numerous instances have led to journalistic investigations, subsequent challenges, resignations, or formal revisions of public roles, prompting broader reflection on the transparency of political elites. The text specifically mentions that in Greece, several recent events have involved prominent figures in public administration and government.

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PULSE – Europe beyond the beat is an initiative coordinated by OBCT which has been promoting intense journalistic cross-border collaborations in Europe since 2024. The main aim is to help strengthen the European public sphere by reporting and telling stories from new and diverse perspectives.

At the heart of PULSE are 10 leading national news outlets (Delfi – Lithuania, Deník Referendum – Czechia, Der Standard – Austria, EfSyn – Greece, El Confidencial – Spain, Gazeta Wyborcza – Poland, HotNews – Romania, HVG – Hungary, Il Sole 24 Ore – Italy, Mediapool – Bulgaria) and three transnational organisations, including OBCT , n-ost and Voxeurop .

PULSE’s offering also includes the distribution of free content to third-party outlets and the animation of four thematic networks open to any European journalist interested in crucial issues such as EU enlargement, Europe and other global powers, the green transition, or media and information society.

PULSE is driven by a sort of virtual transnational newsroom made up of journalists from all the publications involved, which produces new journalistic content on European issues in a collaborative way on a daily basis, coming in many languages. A further layer of associated partners and journalists enriches PULSE’s editorial output, which amounts to over a thousand publications per year.