MEPs in the environment committee will also hold a discussion on Covid-19 variants - and the vaccines' efficacy against them.

MEPs will give the green light for a more united EU health policy, a new investment plan, and debate the Covid recovery fund, which is yet to be unleashed. Lawmakers will also debate media freedom in Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia.

To help bridge the stubborn gender pay gap, the EU Commission will present pay transparency measures so that differences in wages and salaries do not remain hidden from employees.

EU foreign affairs ministers will meet in Brussels and are expected to agree to visa-bans and asset-freezes on Russian officials involved in the jailing of opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny.

Outside of Brussels, Visegrad prime ministers will come together to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the central European cooperation within the V4 group. European Council president Charles Michel will join them.

The EU's foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell will travel to Moscow on Friday, raising eyebrows because leading opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, is in prison. Borrell argues this is the reason why talking is necessary.

The director of the European Medicine Agency, Emer Cooke will be quizzed by MEPs in the parliament on vaccine authorisation on Tuesday. EMA is expected to give the green light to the third vaccine at the end of the week.

EU leaders talk vaccines, while the Portugues EU presidency introduces itself to MEPs. Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president of the United States, and the EU hopes this will mark a new beginning for EU-US relations.

The European Parliament's environment committee will hear from the person who negotiated the vaccine contracts, commission director-general of health and food safety, Sandra Gallina.

On Wednesday, MEPs will vote on the seven-year EU budget file as a whole, and also on the rule-of-law conditionality.

Any post-Brexit deal achieved needs to be ratified by the European Parliament before the end of December (and then by national parliaments), while some member states want to see the agreement translated before they can agree to it.

With only five weeks to go before the UK severs all ties with the EU, chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned that the "same significant divergences persist" between the two sides in post-Brexit talks.

Ahead of the next European summit in mid-December, MEPs will address the EU's long-term budget and rule-of-law conditionality in another virtual plenary session. Discussions will also focus on consumer rights, pharmaceutical strategy and the pandemic.

Talks between the EU and the UK have moved little, with only seven weeks left until the UK breaks ties with the EU. Negotiations are expected to resume on Monday in Brussels.