Image source, PA

Writing in Conservative Home, external, Paul Goodman considers Boris Johnson's recent comments on the European Union renegotiations - including a call for an opt-out for the UK on freedom of movement - and asks whether the conventional wisdom that the Mayor of London will eventually fall into line and campaign for the UK to remain in the EU is wrong. He writes. 

Commission President Juncker tells MEPs that the eurozone crisis has also been a "crisis of legitimacy", that has raised questions about accountability of political decision-making. 

He tells MEPs, however, that this accountability has been improved in recent years given that the European Parliament  "is more involved" in the scrutiny process. 

He adds that improving the Semester process is "nothing to do with federal dreams", but a necessary response to the "reality" of the economic situation of the Eurozone, which he notes is still characterised by slow growth and high unemployment in many areas.

"From my perspective, the crisis is not over," he adds.   

He says that due to policies being developed by the Commission, a bailout of a eurozone country today would have "more transparency and accountability" than was the case with previous programmes in Greece.  

Read more updates on our European Parliament live page. 

Tuesday's plenary sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg is under way. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is updating MEPs about the EU's oversight of the national budgets of Eurozone countries, as part of the so-called European Semester programme. Here's some initial reaction from a UKIP MEP. 

Image source, AP

"European Union? What Union? They're a mess! We've been left to deal with all this on our own."

"I feel let down by Europe. Not by the people of Europe but by those supposed to be leading it. We need to help refugees but where was the help for us Greeks living on the islands faced with hundreds of thousands of arrivals?"

"Our fields were trampled by arriving refugees, they left litter all over our crops. Europe criticised us for building fences to keep migrants out. But they weren't here to help us."

Just three of the outbursts I heard over the last couple of weeks, which I have spent re-tracing the phases of this year's migrant crisis.

Brussels has been much criticised for not doing more to prepare Europe for a refugee crisis despite the spiralling desperation of Syria's civil war.

Chaos on the ground, as one European country after another built fences and re-introduced border controls across the continent's supposedly border-free Schengen area, has been cited as evidence that the EU is falling apart.

Read more from Katya. 

Image source, Getty Images

Wages are unlikely to rise significantly next year unless productivity jumps, a new report finds.

Pay growth could be just 1% if inflation rises faster than expected and productivity remains steady, the Resolution Foundation said.

Issues such as the availability of staff would also affect pay growth in 2016, the think tank said.

Real pay increased this year after six years of stagnation, but only because inflation remained low.

Full story here.

Image source, AFP

Saudi Arabia has said 34 mainly Islamic nations have joined a new military alliance to fight terrorism.

A joint operations centre is to be established in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, state media reported.

Countries from Asia, Africa and the Arab world are involved in the alliance but Saudi Arabia's main regional rival Iran is not.

It comes amid international pressure for Gulf Arab states to do more in the fight against so-called Islamic State.

Read more.

Conservative minister Greg Hands was in the German city of Karlsruhe yesterday to listen to Chancellor Angela Merkel's annual address to her party conference. And he has some comforting news for his boss, David Cameron. 

John Moylan
BBC industry & employment corresponden

Image source, Getty Images

The UK needs to start fracking to establish the economic impact of shale gas, an industry-funded body has said.

The Shale Gas Task Force says only after fracking has begun will it be possible to determine how much gas can be recovered.

It said shale could create thousands of jobs and improve UK energy security, but doubted if it would cut prices.

However, the report was criticised by Greenpeace, coming just days after a climate deal was agreed in Paris.

More here.

The Daily Politics

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

It's more than two years since the prime minister sketched out the big picture of how he wanted to change the EU.

It's now only two days until he has his first significant chance to start a convincing fight for the deal he wants the rest of the European Union to sign up to - what he described when he promised the public a referendum back in 2013: "Fundamental, far reaching change."

At a dinner in Brussels on Thursday night, David Cameron will make his first full representations to his counterparts around the continent, along with the no doubt luxurious hors d'oeuvres, but (this time) before the coffee.

The prime minister will argue for an end for Britain of "ever closer union" - where EU countries align more and more closely; guarantees that the UK will never lose out economically because it has chosen not to join the single currency, the euro; leaner regulation, improved "competitiveness", and most troublesomely for the British negotiating team, action to curb immigration, including making it harder, much harder, for workers from the rest of the EU to claim benefits if they are living and working here.

The prime minister has already acknowledged, very publicly in a speech last month, that restricting benefits for Europeans working here, whether they be Poles, Italians, Spaniards, Romanians or any others, will be a difficult political sell for other countries, to put it mildly.

His counterparts, like the Polish leader last week, have not been shy about making their objections known.

The fundamental complaint is simple - that it would not just be unfair for the same workers in the same job, paying the same taxes, who happened to have grown up in different parts of the EU, but a clear case of discrimination.

But for the government, and no doubt for many members of the public, it is unfair that workers from other parts of the EU who have only recently started to work and pay tax here, should be entitled to the same benefits as British people who have paid into the system for many years. Same scenario - entirely different conclusion.

The wider point about this particular plan is that it challenges a fundamental principle of the EU - that all of its citizens are equal, and entitled in law, to the same treatment and protections.

And sources familiar with what's going on suggest the problem may not just between the UK and many other countries in the EU on this issue, but there is also unease in the government in Westminster.

While some of David Cameron's political advisers want to push forward on the plan to ban EU workers from claiming in-work benefits for four years, it seems there is caution among his non-political civil servants, who are concerned about whether such a move would be legal.

There have been suggestions before that the country's most senior civil servant, Sir Jeremy Heywood, has warned ministers the change would be against the law.

Now, as what Number 10 describes as a "significant moment", the summit, approaches, this tension between officials involved in the negotiations and Mr Cameron's political team is becoming "part of the problem" another source said - with conflicting opinions inside government about what is feasible, as well as with EU counterparts.

A Downing Street source told me they "don't recognise that at all'. But given how high the stakes are, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that there are doubts inside government about what can really be achieved, as well as an awful lot of persuading to do in other countries.

And as the hours tick down to the summit, the backdrop for the PM's efforts is perhaps becoming more hostile to his efforts.

A new poll by ICM suggests that among people who have reached a view, half would vote to leave the European Union, and half would choose to stay - the highest rating from the same polling organisation for those who plump for the exit.

And a Westminster committee today, albeit led by one of the most vehement Eurosceptics, warns the PM is not on course to "deliver the legally binding and irreversible agreement leading to reform of the EU nor a fundamental change in the UK's relationship with it envisaged by him".

Number 10 is adamant they will put their most ambitious proposals on the table for discussion this week, despite the public and private reservations around their most controversial suggestions.

This week will be important, but no-one expects a substantial deal before February.

Indeed, it may not ultimately be to David Cameron's disadvantage for this week to appear to be extremely bumpy, to demonstrate that he is willing to take a proper fight to the rest of the EU.

And of course, we are six months away from the earliest possible date for a public vote.

But time and political perseverance may not be enough to persuade voters that something substantial in our relationship with the EU can and really will change.

Image source, AFP

Good morning - to start Tuesday here's a taster of the top politics story on the BBC at the moment... 

David Cameron will not be able to deliver fundamental reform of the EU without changing its treaties, a committee of MPs says.

The European Scrutiny Committee said there was not enough time for this to happen ahead of the UK's in-out referendum, promised by 2018.

Mr Cameron will try to persuade other EU leaders to back his reform plans at a summit on Thursday.

The government said it wanted "legally binding, irreversible changes".

Where changes to the EU's governing treaties are required, it said it would demand "agreement to such treaty change" before the referendum.

But Conservative Eurosceptic MP Sir Bill Cash, who chairs the cross-party Commons committee, said the lack of treaty change would mean there is "no certainty that they will be delivered to the British people".

He added: "Voters in the forthcoming referendum must be aware of this when they make their choice as to whether to vote to remain in the EU or to leave the EU."

Read more

Monday has brought more news on the UK's EU referendum, as a bid to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in the poll was finally defeated by the government. This means the EU Referendum Bill has cleared Parliament. The government also said it would consider alternatives to one of its key reform demands - restricting in-work benefits for EU migrants.

Meanwhile, Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has met David Cameron for talks about devolution and security matters, and the government announced moves to make it easier to take over council children's services failing vulnerable youngsters in England.

As well as more EU debate as this week's summit nears, Tuesday's agenda includes the latest inflation figures, while the Cabinet meets for the first time since delaying a decision on airport expansion.

BBC Newsnight

Two Conservative MPs have been giving their views on what David Cameron should be aiming for in his EU negotiations. Neil Carmichael says the four-year delay in paying some benefits to EU migrants should be converted to a "residency test" that would apply to all nationalities. But Jacob Rees-Mogg says this would "take fundamental rights" from Britons who move abroad for a number of years and are then unable to claim the payments when they return. He believes the same immigration rules should apply to EU and non-EU migrants. Mr Carmichael says restricting the principle of free movement would damage businesses.

UK businesses face more than £1bn in costs from the introduction of the National Living Wage next year, according to government advisors.

From April, workers aged over 25 will receive a minimum of £7.20 per hour.

The Regulatory Policy Committee, which advises government, estimates the change will cost companies, external £804.4m in extra wages and staff costs.

Read the full story

A framework for devolution of more powers on tax and welfare to Scotland should be agreed by February, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The first minister was speaking after holding talks with David Cameron at Downing Street.

She said she was not seeking "special treatment for Scotland", while the UK government promised a deal that "will stand the test of time".

The two leaders also agreed "ever-closer liaison" on security matters.

Read the full story

Here's what's happened so far:

• The government says it is willing to consider other proposals to reduce levels of EU migration amid opposition to its plan to limit access to in-work benefits
• Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is meeting David Cameron at Downing Street for talks on devolution and security
• A fresh bid by Labour peers to lower the voting age to 16 in the planned referendum on the UK's EU membership fails in the House of Lords
• Legislation paving the way for an EU referendum by the end of 2017 is approved by Parliament
• Moves to make it easier to take over council children's services failing vulnerable youngsters in England have been announced by the prime minister.