Image source, EBS

MEPs also pass a non-binding motion calling on the European Commission to withdraw its proposal to renew the licence for the weedkiller glyphosate.

The EU chemical and food safety regulators have concluded that a renewal of the market authorisation is safe, but some MEPs have questioned the evidence used.

National governments are due to vote on whether to renew the licence this week.

Some MEPs have said, external documents released during a US trial involving American agrochemical firm Monsanto “shed doubt” on the credibility of studies sponsored by the company.

The firm manufactures Roundup, a weed killer which has glyphosate as a main ingredient.

Donald Tusk says the talks are the bloc's "toughest stress test" and the EU cannot become divided.

MEPs also approve a report from the budgetary control committee which calls for “more precise information” on the effectiveness of an EU jobs scheme.

The Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) was set up in 2013 in a drive to tackle high rates of youth unemployment in certain EU countries.

It also says national authorities should make sure EU funds are not used to “replace” public expenditure, and local employers should be better used in the scheme.

MEPs agree to ratify a request from France to retroactively increase the 2016 quota of rum from some of its overseas territories subject to a special excise duty.

A certain amount of traditional rum from places like Guadeloupe, French Guiana, and Martinique has been subject to special duty rates in France since 1923.

The quota for the lower duty rate is adjusted periodically.

However production last year exceeded the eligible quota by about a fifth, meaning pre-paid producers would be subject to higher taxes unless the quota is changed.

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Image source, EBS

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani begins the sitting by expressing his condemnation at the recent killing of investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta last week.

Maltese officials say they believe she was killed by a bomb under her car that was triggered remotely.

Mr Tajani says Ms Caruana Galizia was a "courageous woman and an outstanding journalist".

He says an international investigation, possibly involving EU police agency Europol, should take place to bring the perpetrators to justice.

At his request, MEPs observe a minute's silence.

That’s this morning’s debate on last week’s EU leaders’ summit finished. MEPs are now taking their seats for today’s voting session, which will get underway soon.

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Strasbourg

Labour MEP Richard Corbett defends the two Conservative members who were stripped of the party whip after endorsing the European Parliament's Brexit motion earlier this month.

In voting to say that not enough progress has been made to move onto trade talks, he says that the pair were simply "daring to tell the truth".

He adds that some in the Conservative party "actually want" a no-deal Brexit because they want to put "maximum distance" between the UK and the EU regardless of the cost.

Whilst some claim this is a negotiation tactic, he adds that this amounts to "holding a gun to your own head and saying 'give me what I want' or I will shoot myself".

The EU's stance to Brexit talks is "illogical, dangerous and unfair" and has to change, German MEP Hans-Olaf Henkel tells the European Parliament.

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Strasbourg

Irish Sinn Fein MEP Matt Carthy says any Brexit deal must not lead to a return of "physical manifestations" of the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

To do so would be an "economic, political and social catastrophe", he adds.

He tells MEPs that "all of Ireland" must stay in the single market and the EU's customs union.

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Strasbourg

German conservative Hans-Olaf Henkel says the time has come to criticise the negotiating strategy of the EU in the Brexit talks, which he calls "illogical", "dangerous" and "unfair".

In particular, he takes aim at the demand to settle a financial settlement before talking about a future trading relationship.

He also says a border arrangement between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will require discussions on trade to take place.

"Nowhere in the world is there a border arrangement without a trade or customs arrangement - how will you ever get such an agreement without negotiations on trade?" he asks.

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Strasbourg

There's an intervention from Swedish Liberal Cecilia Wikstrom, who is the European Parliament's lead negotiator on a proposed revision of the Dublin asylum rules.

The EU's Dublin regulation requires refugees to claim asylum in the member state in which they arrive.

Members of the home affairs committee recently took a position on changes to the system suggested by the EU Commission last year.

She says any new arrangements negotiated with member states must include automatic relocation of asylum seekers and "solidarity" between EU states.

A compromise should be put to a qualified majority vote rather than waiting for all the 28 countries to agree on a solution so it can be decided unanimously, she adds.

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UKIP MEP Ray Finch accuses Theresa May of "conceding ground" and "quietly surrendering" in the Brexit talks.

He says the "supine" behaviour of the British government will still leave the UK "subervient" to the EU.

He accuses ministers of "betraying" the voters who put them into government at the last election on the back of a promise that "Brexit means Brexit".

Predicting that negotiations over money will "poison" relations between the EU and the UK for years to come, he adds:

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Left-wing GUE group leader Gabriele Zimmer questions whether the "sufficient progress" test on the EU side is not simply a matter of "political discretion".

EU citizens should not have to "pay the price" of a no-deal Brexit, he adds, but any deal must ensure that citizens' rights are "properly enforced".

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Strasbourg

Guy Verhofstadt, who leads the Liberal ALDE group and is also the Parliament's chief Brexit spokesman, does not mention Breixt specifically.

Instead, he describes what he calls the "structural problems" of the EU, and calls for the end of "Europe a la carte" and the "endless" opt-ins and opt-outs.

He also picks up on Donald Tusk's remarks about cutting the number of MEPs - adding that he expects the eventual outcome to be that favoured by the Parliament, not EU leaders.

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Strasbourg

On both Brexit and migration, Conservative MEP Syed Kammall says the EU has been "allowing idealism to get in the way of pragmatism".

He says that whilst it may appear "logical", the decision to sequence talks in two stages brings a risk that negotiators might become "trapped".

Instead, he calls for pragmatism and a greater focus from the EU side on British needs.

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Strasbourg

The leader of the Socialist and Democrat group, Italian MEP Gianni Pitella, blames the lack of progress in Brexit talks on a "lack of preparation" on the British side.

On the future composition of the European Parliament, he says MEPs "won't have the law laid down to us" by the European Council.