Euobserver.com

The European Commission will on Wednesday unveil the first-ever EU climate law, while environmental activist Greta Thunberg is in Brussels to meet with the college of commissioners and MEPs. Environmental ministers will also gather to discuss future climate developments.

An EU minimum wage would vary between member states, at 60 percent of their respective average or median national wages. Six countries would be obliged to introduce a minimum wage. Is this a whim or a necessity?

German consumer group VZBV and Volkswagen reached an out-of-court settlement to compensate drivers affected by the 2015 'Dieselgate' emissions scandal. About 260,000 consumers in Germany who joined the case will receive between €1,350 and €6,257, the European Consumer Organisation said on Friday. In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found a "defeat device" in diesel engines of 11m cars worldwide.

Nato allies, including Turkey, have urged Russia and Syria to halt fighting after Syrian forces killed 33 Turkish soldiers.

The European Commission says the 2016 deal with Turkey to stem migration flows towards Greece "still stands". The comments follow reports Turkey had opened its borders to allow refugees and migrants into Greece and Bulgaria.

Global stock markets are facing their worst week since the financial crisis of 2008 when global GDP fell by 0.5 percent. Concerns over coronavirus, notably in Italy, made the European markets fell sharply on Friday, the BBC reported. The oil price also fell amid fears that the outbreak might lead a big drop in demand, while tech firms like Apple and Microsoft said their businesses will also be affected.

Romanian authorities earlier this week confirmed the first, and only, case of coronavirus infection - yet public hysteria over a possible national outbreak hit the country days before.

A coalition of 38 stakeholders on Thursday sent a letter to the commissioner of the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, urging that the EU climate law recognises the role of energy efficiency and renewables to reach climate neutrality by 2050. They also recommend to include an intermediate emissions reduction target of at least 55 percent by 2030. The first-ever EU climate law will be announced on 4 March.

Turkey will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, a senior Turkish official said, as Ankara responded on Friday to the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an air strike by Syrian government forces in Syria's northwestern Idlib region, Reuters reports. More or less 1m Syrians have fled the war in Idlib and are living in camps near the Turkish border in dire circumstances.

The EU is holding quiet talks to impose an asset freeze and travel bans on a Chinese entity, a Russian entity, and several related individuals for alleged cyber attacks in Europe, Bloomberg reports citing five anonymous EU diplomats. The talks could take two more months and require unanimity to go ahead. The EU, last year, passed new laws on targeted sanctions against cyber attackers and people who use chemical weapons.

Turkey has hit back at Greek accusations of airspace violations by saying they were based on bogus territorial claims.

Poland is preparing to prosecute a government-critical judge using new powers the EU says are not compatible with European norms.

The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the EU will help provide Africa with more guns to fight terrorism. "We need guns, we need arms, we need military capacities," he said in Addis Ababa.

Refusing entry to people with symptoms would not stop the spread of the coronavirus in the EU, but "systematic" checks at entry points could help, EU experts have said.

As a member of Orbán's opposition in Hungary and Renew in parliament, I am here to remind you whom you are choosing between. Is your political home in the pro-European centre or in Orbán's camp of far-right authoritarian nativists?

In 2018, EU member states spent almost €106bn on environmental protection, representing 1.7 percent of total government expenditure, according to statistics from Eurostat on Thursday. This is equivalent to 0.8 percent of GDP. The Netherlands, Belgium, Greece and Malta spent the most on environmental protection (more than one percent of GDP) while Finland, Lithuania and Cyrpus spent the least (lower than 0.4 percent).

The UK will not seek to continue with participation in the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) after Brexit, according to government documents seen by The Guardian. That is despite requests to the government from UK police chiefs to keep current EU arrangements. The UK is also not seeking membership of Eurojust, the EU agency that works to coordinate investigations and prosecutions between EU member states, the dossier says.

A UK court on Thursday decided that plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport in London are illegal as ministers did not take into consideration the government's commitment to fight climate change. "The UK court reminds the world that decision-makers need to take their climate obligations seriously or [they] risk being taken to court," said the NGO Friends of the Earth director Jagoda Munic.

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday that Greece will take measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, especially in island routes used by migrants to enter the country, Reuters reported. "Putting it simply, we will do whatever it takes to prevent the appearance of the virus - particularly there," he said, referring to the islands. Greece has reported three cases of coronavirus.

The UK government published its Brexit trade deal negotiating stance on Thursday, rejecting a level-playing field with EU on standards, rejecting European Court of Justice oversight on dispute mechanisms, and threatening to walk away from talks - which must be completed by the end of 2020 - in June. The EU is already worried on UK backsliding on the withdrawal agreement on customs arrangements for Northern Ireland.