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Hello and welcome back to coverage of this plenary sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

First up this afternoon: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will join MEPs for a debate on whether his government's policies pose a threat to EU values.

MEPs are due to vote tomorrow on whether to trigger disciplinary proceedings over the country's media laws, judicial independence, treatment of migrants, and other issues.

Mr Orban is expected to deploy a dossier of counter-arguments more than 100 pages long in his defence of his government this afternoon.

European Parliament
Strasbourg

That's today's voting session finished - MEPs will now get the the chance to make speeches to explain how they voted.

The sitting will resume at 14.00 BST, when Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will join MEPs to debate media regulation, academic freedom and the treatment of migrants in his country.

MEPs are due to vote tomorrow over whether to launch disciplinary proceedings against the country for breaching the EU's values.

European Parliament
Strasbourg

MEPs give final approval to legislation on the financing of an EU volunteering scheme for young people which was launched in 2016.

The EU Commission hopes the so-called European Solidarity Corps will provide volunteering placements and job training to 100,000 young people by 2020.

European Parliament negotiators had already reached a draft agreement with national ministers on how the scheme will be funded up until that point.

Under the deal, 20% of the €376m budget will come from redeploying unspent EU funds earmarked for education and training. The rest will come from diverting money from existing programmes.

European Parliament
Strasbourg

MEPs also approve the report they debated yesterday which calls for the EU to continue support for peace projects in Northern Ireland after Brexit.

The non-binding document calls for support for territorial cooperation and cross-community projects to continue after 2020.

It adds that the EU’s PEACE and Interreg projects in particular are “particularly important for the stability of the region”.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker indicated earlier this year that funding for cross-border projects will continue after Brexit.

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Strasbourg

MEPs vote to approve €34m in EU aid to repair damage caused last year by floods in Bulgaria and Lithuania, earthquakes in Greece and storms in Poland.

The money will come from the EU’s Solidarity Fund, external.

With the speech from Lebanese President Michel Aoun over, MEPs will now turn their attention to today's voting session...

European Parliament
Strasbourg

Image source, EBS

Lebanese President Michel Aoun says it is "regrettable" that "secessionist tendencies" are undermining the "pioneering coming together of peoples" of the EU.

Although the country has experienced "political divisions" but has not "divided along national lines".

He says he would like to praise the EU's election observation mission for the elections held in May, and pledges to take the mission's recommendations "into account" in the future.

He calls for further financial support to help Lebanon with the one and a half million refugees that it has taken in from Syria.

"The international community has not done its bit to support Lebanon," he adds.

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Strasbourg

That’s the debate with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras finished. MEPs will shortly begin their voting session for today.

Before that though, they will hear a speech from Lebanese President Michel Aoun.

Mr Aoun is a Maronite Christian former army commander who is an ally of the Islamist militia and political party Hezbollah.

He is currently overseeing the formation of a new cabinet in the country led by Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri, three months after parliamentary elections.

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Strasbourg

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Replying to the interventions from backbench MEPs, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras says he hopes Macedonia's name change will take place "in the next few months, if everything goes to plan".

Defending the name deal - which has faced protests in Greece recently - he says previous Greek governments had "buried their head in the sand" over the issue.

He says the fact that both he and Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev have been accused of betrayal means they must have "done something good".

He pledges an end to austerity and moves to boost consumption in the Greek economy "to the extent possible with achieving our fiscal targets".

He tells MEPs he supports the idea of an EU finance minister and labour minister.

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Strasbourg

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Italian MEP Laura Agea, from the Five Star movement, says mistakes of "monumental proportions" were made in the Greek bailout and the Greek people are owed an apology.

The programme was the "biggest socio-economic gamble in our history", she says.

The money lent did not end up in their hands, she adds, but rather went to "French and German banks".

She says whilst Mr Tsipras initially resisted demands from European creditors, in the end he "simply danced to their tune".

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Strasbourg

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Guy Verhofstadt, who leads the Liberal ALDE group, says "both sides are to blame" for what has happened in Greece.

Greece is to blame for not reforming "fast enough", and Europe for focusing on "pure accountancy and austerity", he tells MEPs.

He says he worries that the eurozone is "still not capable" of facing potentially similar crises in other countries, and still does not have the right governance system.

Green/EFA group co-leader, German MEP Ska Keller, calls for EU states to develop the "safety net" of minimum income schemes and for Greece to become a "front runner" in renewable energy.

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Strasbourg

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Spanish MEP Esteban González Pons, from the centre-right EPP group, says other EU countries "stood by" Greece when the financial markets deserted it.

However he accuses the Greek PM of being "a bit too triumphalist" in his speech.

He says he should acknowledge that the "stability policies" he opposed when he took office have ultimately left it "better off".

However German MEP Udo Bullman, the leader of the Socialist and Democrat group, says the hardship in Greece was caused by the policies advocated by leaders in the EPP group.

"This is your austerity that caused this", he adds.

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Strasbourg

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Euro and Social Dialogue Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis praises Greece for its deal to end a long-running naming dispute with neighbouring Macedonia.

The agreement to rename the country the Republic of North Macedonia faces a referendum vote among Macedonian voters later this month.

The agreement "sets an example for the whole region and the wider world", he says.

He says the Greek people "took responsibility" during the country's bailout, but adds that other European countries showed "unprecedented" solidarity in their lending.

He adds that the EU has given €1.6bn towards migration in Greece, and has worked to strengthen the EU's border and coast guard.

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Strasbourg

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Towards the end of his speech, the Greek PM calls for an "obligatory social pillar" at the EU level - a policy that would enshrine certain social rights.

He also urges reform of the EU's asylum system, and for a better EU-wide system for fighting natural disasters.

He also calls for the EU to help "strengthen the European perspective" of Turkey.

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Strasbourg

Returning to the subject of the bailout, his says his country's exit from the bailout programme "does not mean a return to the past", but is a "new beginning".

He pledges to continue modernising Greece's public administration and carry on the path of "fiscal stability".

He tells MEPs that during the crisis, the EU institutions became "more technocratic", with "decisions taken behind closed doors".

The "failure of the neoliberal management of the crisis" feeds "the monster of chauvinism", he says, warning that racism is now becoming the "dominant political discourse" on the conservative right.

"You were afraid of us" he tells MEPs - but adds that now the "real threat" to Europe is "those who struggle to destroy it".

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Strasbourg

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Continuing his speech, Alexis Tsipras gives an overview of the country's efforts in hosting migrants.

Unlike "other countries", he says, Greece did not create barriers and its local communities "gave lessons in humanity".

"We rejected hatred", he adds.

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Strasbourg

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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras begins his speech by telling MEPs his country has made a "clean exit" from its eurozone bailout programme.

The decision of creditors to "press for austerity" in the programme brought Greece to the point of bankruptcy and "social explosion", he says.

He says "very few" MEPs believed Greece would make its way through its "adventure" - but that it has emerged as "a different country".

The country has returned to growth and can be "part of the solution for Europe", he adds. He notes that foreign investment is at its highest level in ten years.

Hello and welcome to coverage of the second day of this week’s European Parliament plenary sitting in Strasbourg.

It’s a busy day today, beginning shortly with a speech to MEPs from Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

He is the latest European leader to make a speech in the assembly in a scheduled series about the future of the EU.

It comes after Greece last month completed its three-year eurozone emergency loan programme to tackle its debt crisis.

Next tonight, there will be short presentations seven "own initiative" reports from committees with suggestions for new EU policies that will be voted on tomorrow.

One suggests the bloc's regime for recognising the equivalency of financial services rules in non-EU countries should get greater scrutiny from MEPs.

Another report has various recommendations for member states on tackling bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace.

However that's where we leave our coverage for tonight - MEPs will be back tomorrow from 08.00 BST, when they will first be hearing a speech from Greek PM Alexis Tsipras.

European Parliament
Strasbourg

Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu pays tribute to the victims of the fire, as well as those from the emergency services who fought it.

She says she was in contact with the Greek authorities to help co-ordinate the response to the fires as soon as possible.

There was "substantial" support from the EU's civil protection mechanism, with nine EU states offering support of different kinds, she adds.