Euobserver.com

The Green Deal commissioner, Frans Timmermans, said the costs of inaction in climate policy are "tremendously high". However, it is still unclear if member states will unanimously agree on the EU's 2050 climate-neutrality goal at next week's summit.

French president Emmanuel Macron will face one the biggest strikes of his mandate on Thursday as unions organised more than 240 demonstrations. French rail workers, air-traffic controllers, teachers and public sector staff are expected to march across France against the proposed changes to the pension system. About half of the Eurostar trains between Paris and London have been cancelled. Many schools and shops will also be closed.

On Wednesday a new regulation by Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, came into force increasing its participation in border surveillance and support for EU member states and Schengen countries, Ekathimerini writes. It is a new step in the creation of a unified European border service of 10,000 border and coast guards to support national authorities with border control and migration management.

Bomb squad experts on Wednesday defused a grenade after it was thrown over the wall of a center for unaccompanied foreign minors in Madrid, El País reported. According to police sources, the device was a type of grenade used by the Spanish army. However, the amount of explosive was very small and there were no reported injuries. Far-right party Vox has repeatedly criticised the facility.

A study found that 500,000 hermit crabs died after being trapped in plastic bottles and other rubbish on two remote archipelagos at the Indian and Pacific Ocean, the Guardian reported. This could produce a possible global species decline. The researchers from University of Tasmania and the Natural History Museum in London previously revealed that the Cocos and Henderson islands are polluted with millions of pieces of plastic.

Israel's foreign ministry said on Twitter that it fully supports Greece, and expressed concern over Turkey's increasing activities in the Eastern Mediterranean. "Israel follows with concern recent steps taken by Turkey in the Mediterranean. Ignoring customary international laws of the sea can jeopardise peace and stability in the area," the ministry said, adding that "Israel reiterates its full support and solidarity with Greece in its maritime zones."

A group of Irish content moderators are preparing to take legal action for personal injuries caused by exposure to "disturbing content" during their employment by third-party company CPL in Dublin, on behalf of Facebook, the Irish Times writes. Facebook said in a statement that it is "committed to providing support for those that review content for Facebook as we recognise that reviewing certain types of content can sometimes be difficult".

The European Parliament's development committee says its overarching priority will be to deliver on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Achieving that will require an action plan and targeted investments, says its chair Swedish centre-right MEP Tomas Tobé.

The EU's eastern neighbourhood is in flux. The collapse of the pro-reform government in Moldova and the stagnation of anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine was recently followed yet by another political crisis in Georgia.

"I have not been a lobbyist" the Swedish woman who wants to oversee good conduct by EU institutions, Cecilia Wikström, has said.

Hungarian foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, pledged on Wednesday that his country would block Ukraine's membership in Nato unless Kiev restores the rights that about 150,000 ethnic Hungarians had before a language law from 2017 put a curb on minorities' access to education in their mother tongues, Reuters writes. "We ask for no extra rights to Hungarians in Transcarpathia [Ukraine], only those rights they had before," said Szijjártó.

The new EU Commission president will tell EU leaders next week that they need to put money behind their pledges for border protection, defence policy and fighting climate change.

Czech prime Minister Andrej Babis will be investigated further for fraud in a case involving EU funds, reversing an earlier decision, the top Czech state attorney said Wednesday. Babis, a billionaire businessman, had been investigated on suspicion of illegally tapping €2m in EU subsidies before he entered politics. He has denied wrongdoing. The EU Commission had also found in an audit a conflict of interest on Babis, Czech media reported.

According to the new working methods of the EU Commission, Joseph Borrell, the EU's new foreign policy chief will brief fellow commissioners weekly, as part of commission president Ursula von der Leyen's efforts to make the executive more geopolitically aware. The new commission will also create a new preparatory body, which will coordinate between commissioners tasked with external affairs and internal matters.

The new EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday she is "concerned" about recent developments in Malta, where investigations into the 2017 murder of a journalist have shaken the government, prompting prime minister Joseph Muscat to announce that he would resign in January. "I expect thorough and independent investigation, free from any political interference. It is crucial that all those responsible are brought to justice," she said.

The EU Commission's in-house think tank, the European, will be renamed, IDEA (Inspire, Debate, Engage and Accelerate Action), the commission president Ursula von der Leyen told journalists on Wednesday. The research centre will be restructured, based on the new commission's policy guidelines, and will be used to address geopolitical challenges, the commission chief added.

Two Russian diplomats were expelled from Germany on Wednesday after the murder of a Georgian asylum seeker in Berlin, Deutsche Welle reports. German federal prosecutors say there is enough evidence that murder was ordered by either Russia or Chechnya. In August the Georgian man was shot in "an execution style" killing in Kleiner Tiergarten park. Russia called the move "unfriendly".

An open letter to EU leaders from Maltese MEP David Casa on the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case and prime minister Joseph Muscat.

A report of the European Court of Auditors published on Wednesday concludes that the EU needs to strengthen and better monitor its legal requirements for national budgetary frameworks. It highlights the risk of inconsistency between the European Commission's and independent bodies' assessment of member states compliance with EU fiscal rules. "The EU legal framework governing national budgetary frameworks leaves room for improvement," said Mihails Kozlovs, responsible of the report.