France: Le Pen's chief of staff under formal investigation - by Catherine Hardy

Controversial Marine Le Pen with fellow nationalist right-winger

The chief-of-staff of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been put under formal investigation as part of an inquiry into the alleged misuse of EU funds to pay parliamentary assistants.

udicial sources say Catherine Griset had been questioned along with Le Pen’s bodyguard, Thierry Legier, who was later released.

It comes after police searched the FN party headquarters in western Paris on Monday.

The case has landed the Front National leader in the spotlight.

Read more: Le Pen's chief of staff under formal investigation | Euronews

Weapons Industry: International arms trade shoots up to highest level since end of Cold War – by Daniel Mützel

The global arms race grew significantly last year and sales shot up by 8.4%, according to a study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) that compared the last five years with the 2007-2011 period. It called it the highest level since the end of the Cold War.

The five largest arms suppliers, the United States, Russia, China, France and Germany, are responsible for 74% of weapons traded around the world.

According to the SIPRI, the reason for this increase in sales is the growing demand presented by Asia and the Middle East.

Read more: International arms trade shoots up to highest level since end of Cold War – EurActiv.com

Europe: Dangerous radioactive particles have been detected across Europe from unknown source - by J. Hamill

DANGEROUS radioactive particles have been detected in seven different European countries and scientists can’t explain where they have come from.

Traces of Iodine-131 were found in Norway, Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, France and Spain in January, but the public were not immediately alerted.

These radioactive particles are produced by atomic bomb explosions or nuclear disasters such as Chernobyl or Fukushima.

They appear to be emanating from Eastern Europe, but experts have not been able to say exactly what produced them.

Astrid Liland, head of emergency preparedness at the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, told the Barents Observer that the health risk was very low – which was why she did not raise the alarm after detecting Iodine-131 during the second week of January.

Read more: Dangerous radioactive particles have been detected across Europe and no-one knows where they came from

Spain - Refugees: Barcelona protest to support refugees draws thousands

Some 160,000 people have demonstrated in Barcelona to demand the government allow more refugees into Spain from war-hit areas such as Syria.

Marchers carrying placards and banners- many in the Catalan language - accused the Madrid government of dragging its feet over the issue.

They say it has not honoured its pledge made in 2015 to allow more than 17,000 refugees into Spain within two years.

Over that time, Spain has accepted only about 1,100 refugees.

Police gave the estimate of the turnout at Saturday's protest in the capital of Catalonia, organised by the Our Home is Your Home group, with many denouncing the government for not living up to its promises.

Protest organisers quoted by local media said that as many as 300,000 people took part.

Note EU-Digest: Bravo Spain ! Refugees don't come to Europe because they prefer it there. They come because their homes are being destroyed by war and bombs, many of these bombs are from our own Western military (NATO). High time to stop this stupidity and for Europe to get out of all these military adventures where nobody succeeds and everybody suffers.
 
Read more: Barcelona protest to support refugees draws thousands - BBC News

Capitalizing on Capitalism: Unilever's Paul Polman Shares His Plans to Save the World - by Vivienne Walt

Step out of the frigid drizzle into Unilever’s factory outside ­Liverpool in northern England, and the brightly lit, automated assembly line gleams in stark contrast to the gloom outside. Thousands of bottles shoot down a conveyor belt with a click-clack sound, in a streak of bright purple.

Look more closely, and there is an important detail. The new bottle is squatter than the older, taller style on another assembly line, with a smaller dispenser and a label explaining that this version of Comfort brand fabric conditioner is good for 38 washes, rather than the 33 of the last-generation package. The message is clear: Customers need to help save one of earth’s most precious resources—water.

This might appear to be a clever bit of marketing by one of the world’s biggest consumer product companies, and marketing it surely is. But to Unilever (ul, +14.00%), its updated, concentrated liquid is also a crucial innovation. It’s one of countless tweaks underway by the Anglo-Dutch company in its more than 300 factories across the world, which churn out more than 400 brands for 2.5 billion or so customers—an astonishing one in every three people on the planet.

Central to these changes is a message Unilever is determined to convey to its investors, as well as to other companies: Big corporations need to change the way they do business, fast, or they will steadily shrink and die.

Read more: Unilever's Paul Polman Shares His Plans to Save the World | Fortune.com

Netherlands’ Wilders popularity waning- by Nick Ottens

When Donald Trump won the presidential election in November, Dutch nationalist party leader Geert Wilders hailed it as the beginning of an illiberal reaction that would inspire like-minded movements on the Atlantic's other shore.

But it doesn’t seem to be happening in his home country.

The national broadcaster NOS averaged the polls for the election in March and found that support for Wilders’ Freedom Party has fallen since the end of last year, from a high of 21 percent to 18 percent.

The party, which proposes to take the Netherlands out of the European Union and stop immigration from non-Western countries, could still become the single-largest. But the difference with Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s liberal VVD is now only a few seats.

If this trend continues, Rutte could come out on top, although he is likely anyway to remain in power at the head of a coalition of parties in the centre.

So far Freedom Party voters are not flocking to Rutte, who is closest to Wilders on immigration and security policy but also supports EU membership and free trade. His liberal party is stable at 16-17 percent support.

The question now is: where will they go?

"Lets hope they go to a fresh new face like Jesse Klaver from GroenLinks", said a Dutch farmer in Groningen. 

EU-Digest

The Netherlands: The "Dutch Trump" Geert Wilders PVV party losing support in the polls

Trump and Wilders "one and the same" - disaster

Dutch political scientist Tom Louwerse, creator of Peilingwijzer, told NOS Dutch TV News station : "The PVV lost 5 seats since December and you can now see that decline to a greater or lesser extent at all polling agencies",

Researchers see several reasons why voters in the Netherlands are turning their back on the PVV, according to the Dutch newspaper AD. Some people are concerned about American president Donald Trump's policies, for which Wilders expressed great support and he even went to the US to support him .

"Trump has turned out to be a completely deranged person and so is his Dutch supporter Geert Wilders - they are very similar and voting for him makes no sense at all. It will only cause disaster and chaos in the Netherlands", said a member of the Dutch  Parliament, who wanted to remain anonymous

Others doubt the feasibility of the PVV's plans or have their doubts about whether the PVV will be part of the next government, given that very few other Dutch political parties want to work with him

EU-Digest