dining office and try our services. be our guest at frankfurt airport city managed by for. this is d.w. news live from berlin tonight and no brakes on brakes it britain's prime minister is in brussels to put her country's exit plan from the european union back on schedule theresa may is urging you leaders to break the deadlock and move things forward but they say it's britain not europe that's dragging its feet we'll go live

to brussels for more also coming up a showdown in spain the region of catalonia defies the deadline to abandon plans for independence madrid says it will start taking back control of the breakaway region on saturday. i bring golf it's good to have you with us migration refugees and more sanctions against north korea these are just a few of the hot topics in brussels this evening we're e.u. leaders are holding a key two day summit british prime minister to resign may has come to the summit armed with proposals that she hopes will move talks along for the e.u. leaders say that she has to match her promises with concrete details of any progress is to be made. well just

in the last hour the president of the european commission and the european council have been giving a press briefing want to go to brussels now our max hoffman is standing by he's covering this summit force good evening to you max what did you make of mr toast and mr youngers comments the start was migration policy. migration is probably the biggest topic they talked about because that's what's been discussed so far bragg's it is on the menu for dinner there's the difference and what's interesting brant about the migration part the president of the european council said that they wanted to attack a subject that they haven't been able to resolve for years lots of years and that's a common asylum system they want to have a solution for that a common european asylum system next year which would be lightning speed compared to usual speeds in the european union and it shows you that once to change the way that the whole council works he wants to speed up things if they can't have

unanimity on one topic move ahead with a number of countries until the rest is ready to join he's laid out a so-called leaders agenda for that that's his plan we'll see how it works and what about bret's and we know that to resume a is there basically to put the fire underneath the bottoms of many people there at that meeting is it going to work i mean has there been reaction to that so far. i haven't felt any heat that was sufficient for her to access full there but things don't aren't as bad as they look for it to resubmit you have to give her that because we've seen the draft conclusions and in there there is a lot of hope by the rest of the leaders that they might move on to phase two that's what reason may want to do talk about the future trade relations between the u.k. and the e.u. in december at the next summit and if they really keep that in there then i said there is reasonable hope that this will actually happen to resume a had hoped that it will with what happened today but it looks like that is very

unlikely and max have to ask you about this crisis that we're seeing it does about to boil over in spain catalonia refusing to take back its promise of independence spain says it's going to move in saturday and take full control of the region has there been any reaction to that at the summit. well remember you know who's here the prime minister of spain roy himself we would have loved to talk to him about that but he just rushed into the building so no chance other leaders though said they were worried but that they would stay in line with the european union meaning that the only person they would talk to. that this was a domestic affair in spain but still i think you know i think it's safe to say that they will ask the holy over dinner was it what's your plan what exactly do you have in mind for catalonia you know and if something is said there we know that you'll be bringing it to us as soon as you get our max off at that summit in brussels tonight max thank you very much. well the crisis as we said in catalonia is

escalating spain is preparing to take full control of these in my autonomous region that after the kettle on leader refused to give up demands for independence of the central government in madrid has said that mr ignored a thursday deadline to withdraw catalonia has plans to break away now he must face the consequences. game of brinkmanship heats up catalan leader colors put them on at the regional parliament for the latest showdown camera struggle to get a good glimpse of the man who is refusing to back down in his latest letter to the spanish government he warns that the catalan parliament could vote to declare independence if madrid triggers article one hundred fifty five this allows spain central government to take over any of the country's seventeen autonomous regions if they break the law which declaring independence is deemed to be. the spanish

government's reaction to double down the government will continue with the processing of article one hundred fifty five of the constitution with a goal to restore the law in catalonia if you will reach the ryder. cup and spain says it will hold a special cabinet meeting on saturday to activate article one hundred fifty five this is never been used in modern spanish history so what does that mean in practice it would allow madrid to sack regional office holders dissolve the regional parliament and assume control of all regional authorities. new elections would be held in catalonia until then madrid could fill key interim positions after invoking the article it won't come into effect straight away it needs parliamentary approval spanish prime minister mariano rajoy needs an absolute majority for that and he only has a slim one in barcelona catalan residents are prepared for

a standoff. yeah the main doesn't love us they only love our money they want our money i'm not sure if i'm explaining myself clearly all the things they've done for catalonia are not really for catalonia they were let us go because the money is here. they are making people more pro independence with these games they are playing. the rain may be pushing off demonstrators from taking to the streets at least for now. i want to pull in correspondent martin robinson standing by in madrid good evening to you martin the fact that we have two more days that parliament is meeting on saturday to invoke article one fifty five does that mean the government in spain are they still giving and exit ramp to the cattle on parliament and the cattle on president to in this conflict well i mean it certainly when they're about action is

a good reason that holding a meeting on saturday but simply being reshaped to a bit usual front because prime minister rudd you know as your correspondent in brussels said attending a european summit meeting that's the only reason on the other hand that yeah. there are still several days left this is actually true because you know it has to go to the senate where incidentally rocco's party do have a generous and he's also made sure. the opposition parties are resigned in the lower chamber where he's going to get minority so he does have overwhelming government reason for this but this so. that they will step in the brink if they so wish and let's say that we do go to the brink and article one fifty five in parliament is invoked what is it going to look why does this article does that enable for example the prime minister to use force to retake control of catalonia.

well i don't think anybody is planning on doing this. again the problem is as he said before it's not having. done across a constitutional rule. well it was for a number of options but nobody's quite sure how it works in practice or indeed how inconvenient for. one thing well cause for optimism or instances of the central government is already taking over a lot of the financing for the present governments they do that perfectly peacefully so there's no reason why they should be able to say go over other aspects of government so again i think what people are sharing is the street protests. again i was really they were they were the same way because in the same zone. as the referendum on the first of october which you know the violence since everybody surrounded well yeah i agree i think there are

a lot of people wondering if saturday will be a day of the violence or a day of civil disobedience i guess we'll have to wait and see correspondent martin roberts on the story for us tonight in madrid martin thank you very much. here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world in france thousands of people have taken part in a nationwide administration against president manuel micron's labor reforms but observers say the turnout was lower than during last month's protests now the reforms fast tracked by executive order make it easier for firms to hire and fire employees a cone says they will help free up the energy of the workforce at least three people have reportedly been shot dead in togo as games of youths clashed with security forces who were trying to prevent an opposition demonstration the opposition in the west african nation is calling for the resignation of the president his family has ruled that country since nineteen sixty eight. nearly

a month after the country's election the german chancellor angela merkel is now holding talks with potential coalition partners the parties from across the political spectrum say that their first meetings have gone well but they are warning it may take a while to build to bridge their differences. all eyes on two parties that don't really fit together but are now working together on day two of exploratory talks the business friendly f.t.p. mitt the green party and try to find common ground. i and. my whole car mot to show talks were lively we listened to each other carefully and managed to see things from the other party's point of view i am lassen was it's on this on the jamaican color still appear exotic in german politics never before have the business friendly f.t.p. and the environmentalist green party negotiated to form

a federal government together it's a challenge as their positions couldn't be more different. for instance on the european union the green party is calling for an end to austerity measures and wants a collective pact on texas and investments the free market liberal f.d.p. on the other hand to strictly against any kind of death mutualization within the e.u. and on clean energy the environmental greens have very clear goals they want one hundred percent renewable energy by two thousand and fifty they also want to ban combustion engines in automobiles by two thousand and thirty a no go for the business friendly free democrats. migration could be the one issue on which the f.t.p. and green party could find common ground both parties have been calling for germany's first immigration law. by the time its claws on both parties realize that we have a long way to go but we also understand that if we want

a common government then we need to find common interests and not follow the conservative party's well worn path. on friday the conservative c.d.u. and c.s.u. parties will join the talks behind these walls all four potential coalition partners will negotiate together for the first time. only enough talk about present day europe ancient rome is the place to be it is a big day for comic book fans as millions of copies of a new asterix book are being released here in europe this time fans can follow their heroes as they compete in a race across italy going to happen we're going to get that report the ok i've just been told that the story for some reason about technical problems it's not running that can happen when you

are trying to race back to the future all right let's do a sports story for you now we're going to go to the europa league it has been another bad night so far for german sides here to berlin last two one at ukraine's and cologne went down one no at borisov in cologne have only won one match in all competitions so far this season and that was against a fifth division team in the german cup hoffenheim are playing now. here's a reminder of the top stories that we're following for you the spanish government has announced that it will move ahead with suspending the autonomy of catalonia this after the region's leader threatened to declare independence madrid says it will discuss next steps at an emergency meeting on saturday british prime minister to resign may is urging the european union to break a deadlock on. she made the comments at the start of an e.q. leaders a summit in brussels a coordinated e.u.

migration policy will also be on the agenda at the two day meeting. you're watching t w news live from berlin i'll be back at the top of the hour with more news followed by the day tonight's an in-depth look at the front lines in the battle between barcelona and madrid. when cities by the sea and all the walls and costly protective measures will has been. nothing.