We extend our analysis on the Oldroyd-B model in Barrett and Boyaval [1] to consider the finite element approximation of the FENE-P system of equations, which models a dilute polymeric fluid, in a bounded domain $D ⊂ R d , d = 2 or 3$, subject to no flow boundary conditions. Our schemes are based on approximating the pressure and the symmetric conforma-tion tensor by either (a) piecewise constants or (b) continuous piecewise linears. In case (a) the velocity field is approximated by continuous piecewise quadratics ($d = 2$) or a reduced version, where the tangential component on each simplicial edge ($d = 2$) or face ($d = 3$) is linear. In case (b) the velocity field is approximated by continuous piecewise quadratics or the mini-element. We show that both of these types of schemes, based on the backward Euler type time discretiza-tion, satisfy a free energy bound, which involves the logarithm of both the conformation tensor and a linear function of its trace, without any constraint on the time step. Furthermore, for our approximation (b) in the presence of an additional dissipative term in the stress equation, the so-called FENE-P model with stress diffusion, we show (subsequence) convergence in the case $d = 2$, as the spatial and temporal discretization parameters tend to zero, towards global-in-time weak solutions of this FENE-P system. Hence, we prove existence of global-in-time weak solutions to the FENE-P model with stress diffusion in two spatial dimensions.