MEPs hit out at British divisions as Nigel Farage says the EU is "treating us like a hostage".

That’s today’s voting session finished – those MEPs who didn’t get the chance to when the measures were debated will now get the chance to make short speeches explaining their votes.

Then after a break for lunch, the sitting will start again at 14.00 BST with a debate on EU relations with Moldova.

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They also approve an advisory report from the development committee about clampdowns against charities and NGOs around the world.

The report says this is happening as a result of funding limitations, internet censorship, increased bureaucracy, as well as violence.

It also expresses concern about groups that legally receive foreign funding being branded as “foreign agents” by hostile governments.

It calls for EU states to use all tools at their disposal, including trade policy, to ensure “partner countries” live up to commitments to protect human rights.

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MEPs pass unamended their advisory motion on the Brexit talks which they debated this morning.

The motion is backed by 557 MEPs, with 92 against and 29 abstentions.

The resolution recommends that, barring a "major breakthrough", EU leaders should not agree to open the next phase of talks at a meeting later this month.

The motion urges leaders to declare “sufficient progress” has not yet been made on the priority areas identified by the EU: guarantees on citizen's rights, a financial settlement and the Irish border.

It also accuses the UK of having "seriously impeded" talks over money through a lack of "clear proposals".

That’s the debate on the state of Brexit negotiations finished – MEPs will vote on their non-binding motion as the first item during today’s voting session, which begins shortly.

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Responding to the debate, European Commission Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier thanks MEPs for their "support" in the Brexit talks.

He dismisses comments from some that the Commission is seeking to punish the UK, saying "you will never find the tiniest speck of vengeance in my attitude towards you".

He also rejects criticism that the EU is playing for time in the talks, adding that it was the UK that "took the time" to wait nearly a year before sending the Article 50 letter.

He would like to speed up the talks "to the greatest possible extent", he tells MEPs.

Transitional arrangements would have to be a "short period", during which the "rules of the single market" would have to apply.

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Swedish centre-right MEP Christofer Fjellner says the UK has to "get its act together", whilst the EU has a clear negotiating mandate.

Greek New Democracy MEP Maria Spyraki says the UK is not doing enough to guarantee the rights of EU citizens in the UK, including Greek nationals.

There should not be "any major change" in their position, she adds.

Danish social democrat Jeppe Kofod accuses Theresa May of vagueness in her demands for a post-Brexit relationship with the EU.

"Did Sir Humphrey write the Florence speech?", he adds.

Image source, PA

The main motion has been signed by the leaders of five of the eight political groups in the European Parliament, which between them house 577 of the 751 MEPs.

This includes the leaders of the two largest groups, the centre-right EPP and the centre-left S&D.

It is the same coalition of groups that supported the Parliament’s initial red lines for the talks adopted in April this year.

The UKIP-dominated EFDD group has tabled its own counter-motion, although the group lacks the numbers to get it passed. If the main motion is passed, it will not even be voted on.

It takes a very different line from the main motion, calling for:

• the current negotiating timetable to be changed
• a “no-tariff free trade agreement” to be the priority in talks
• no transition period after the UK leaves the EU in 2019
• the EU’s top court to have no arbitration role in the UK after it leaves
• the EU to bear the cost of relocating London-based EU agencies

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French Front National MEP Steeve Briois says UK has faced an "avalanche of demands and threats" since the Brexit vote.

The EU has shown its true colours, he says, revealing an "anti-democratic" side.

Hungarian Fidesz MEP Gyorgy Schopflin says the UK initially made a "serious diplomatic effort" to split the unity of the remaining EU but this has "failed".

Many in the UK seem to be "entirely unaware" of what the EU is saying, he adds.

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Irish Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuiness says today's motion simply "states the obvious" that not enough progress has been made to move talks onto trade.

She says that if the situation on the island of Ireland is to remain the same, then the UK will have to remain in the single market and the customs union.

"If that is not to be, then please tell me what will replace that?" she adds.

Another Irish MEP, the independent Marian Harkin who sits in the liberal ALDE group, says that Ireland may be even worse hit than the UK "in the event of a hard Brexit".

She says that the prospect of Northern Ireland remaining in the customs union and internal market would gain the support of a majority of people in Northern Ireland.

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Ex-UKIP MEP Steven Woolfe, who now sits as an independent, says British voters are "no longer fooled" by the EU's insistence that it wants to negotiate a fair deal.

He says the EU "wants its cake, our cake, the morning croissant, afternoon tea and finishing it with taking a pound of Britain's economic flesh".

However Labour MEP Richard Corbett blames the lack of progress so far on the "chaos, confusion and divisions" within the UK government.

He adds that ministers are trying to pursue a "particular form of Brexit" not supported by the public.

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Ulster Unionist MEP James Nicholson says the European Parliament's position would result in an "international border" being established between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

He accuses the Parliament's chief Brexit spokesman Guy Verhofstadt of "taking sides" and warns the talks are "heading for a crash" unless the position changes.

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Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage begins by criticising the EU response to the disputed Catalan referendum over the weekend.

He tells MEPs that in his speech earlier, Jean-Claude Juncker had "not a dickie bird" to say about police violence, which he "never ever" thought he would see in an EU state.

He says that the Brexit vote was a "voice of national self-determination", but that the EU has treated the UK as "some kind of hostage" ever since.

He says the EU won't have an "intelligent conversation" about a trading relationship until all of its demands are met by the British negotiators.

The sight of Theresa May "begging" for a transitional deal in Florence was "pitiful", he adds.

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Guy Verhofstadt, who leads the Liberal ALDE group and is also the Parliament's chief Brexit spokesman, says he "deplores" the lack of progress so far.

There was "not enough" in Theresa May's Florence speech to say that "sufficient progress" has been made to move the talks onto trade.

He also criticises the UK's proposals for creating a new "settled status" for EU citizens after Brexit - which he says will cause a "huge administrative burden" for those affected.

The situation could be "solved immediately" by guaranteeing UK and EU citizens the "same rights as now", he adds.

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The leader of the Socialist and Democrat group, Italian MEP Gianni Pitella says there is still "a lot of uncertainty" in the state of talks.

All four freedoms should apply to any transitional deal, he adds.

Another Italian, Raffaele Fitto, from the conservative ECR group, says he is "a little more optimistic" about talks after Theresa May's Florence speech.

Neither side can afford to fail to reach an agreement, he adds - noting that this would be "bad for both sides".

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German Christian democrat MEP Manfred Weber, who leads the centre-right EPP group, calls for foreign secretary Boris Johnson to be sacked.

"We need a clear answer who is responsible for the British position," he says.

Theresa May should "put Britain first" instead of fighting "quarrels" in the Conservative party, he adds.

He says that "clear progress" will be required by 2019 in order to guarantee that the European Parliament ratifies the final deal.