i'm willem marx. these are your headlines >>> the consolidation continues. bankia agrees to buy smaller rival bmn in a deal that creates a bank with a combined 230 billion euros in assets. we speak to bankia's cfo first on cnbc. >>> a russian court arrests some assets of russian conglomerate sistema, sending the stock lower as the legal dispute with oil giant rosneft rages on. >>> schaeffler shares sink to the bottom of the stoxx 600 after the auto parts supplier warns of profits and free cash flow. >>> mario draghi defends his easing monetary policy as he warns about the risk of unwinding these policies too soon the ecba president will speak in a few moments time from sintra we'll bring you that speech live >>> here's the latest on the heat map across europe a lot of red on the board. the latest in bank consolidation is that bankia is buying banco mare nostrum bankia plans to raise capital to fund the deal. a lot of red there except for bankia banco popular at zero. > >>>. >>> schaeffler cuts its profit warning. they see the 2017 adjusted eby t ebi at 11% t

cnbc's willem marx joins us from london. travis kalanick taking an extended leave of absence.sentially this report has come through from former attorney general eric holder, made a number of recommendations, ten in total. travis kalanick will be working apparently on management skills and senior execs will fill in for him. mr. holder put forward about ten recommendations including a new independent chairman and oversight committee as part of the board of directors that's been unanimously approved by the board. one of those individuals on the board belongs to tpg, one of the private equity firms. he's resigned following sexist comments to roll out new proposals. >>> another story, u.s. insurance giant centene will expand obamacare coverage, that comes as a number of other insurance companies pull back on the obamacare coverage. i think they have 1.2 million customers across the u.s. another thing to watch is the federal reserve, expected to raise interest rates about a quarter percent today. a lot of people watching consumer inflation numbers coming out if, as people expect, th

speech may be need to be delayed if today's talks fail to result in a deal let's get back out to willem marx live from downing street. what are the key talking points? >> we understand it will be a vote by vote agreement, rather than a coalition deal between the dup and the conservatives. arlene foster coming here to meet with theresa may before theresa may meets with emanuel macron this afternoon. she will be asking for money, cash for education, four healthcare, bluntdi iblunting s conservative manifesto messages like care spending let's listen to her on-camera statement. >> we are going into these talks with the national interest at heart. the union, as i said before, is our guiding star we believe in the union. we believe in national, stable government, that's what is at the forefront of our mind going into the talks >> theresa may spoke to conservative backed benches last night and seems to have secured her position at least for now by promising them she would serve the party for as long as they wanted her to. however there are some very few choices left over to conservative mps if they

. >> willem marx has been following this story from brussels, luxembourg, just about everywhere how are you? >> good. >> keeping abreast with all these comments >> trying. >> it started finally. are we going to get it done in two years? >> i think that's a question i can't answer, but certainly something david davis would love to see happen. we heard a lot the last few weeks from the europeans that that will be a tight timetable the brits stepped up, they said we will start on the 19th. we heard some yesterday. >> i know you will get to some tape, but before that, something about me now thinks that theresa may's bloody nose in the election may be a good thing for getting more constructive talks. if she would have gotten this enormous mandate, maybe she would have gone for a harder brexit and that would have been harder, but maybe more pragmatic. >> heading up to the talks, we heard from david davis about the importance of getting the trade talks underway at the same time they're discussing other issues. yesterday that hasn't happened it doesn't seem like he mutt up a ma put up a massive

it's not all about the uk and brexit, it's all about greek loans we're live in luxembourg with willem marxis short break. whoooo. you're searching for something. like the perfect deal... ...on the perfect hotel. so wouldn't it be perfect if there was a single site where you could find the right hotel for you at the best price? there is. because tripadvisor now compares prices from over 200 booking sites... ...to save you up to 30%... ...on the hotel you want. trust this bird's words. tripadvisor. the latest reviews. the lowest prices. >>> before we get to willem talking about the euro group in luxembourg, i want to show that brexit is a big problem. it's a major issue for us, but also the relationships with europe will be torturous but not all is well in greece. i want to remind everyone of the stats surrounding greece alexei tsipras came in, he was going to change everything he hasn't yesterday. hopefully he's making progress the greek debt level, it is unsustainable. it's a ridiculously high level the question is do they carry on paying piecemeal interest payments 179% debt to gdp needs

. >> that was the uk chancellor speaking at the arrivals at luxembourg we'll head out to willem marx in a few minutes time before that, a quick look at what the markets are doing. we're modestly higher to the tune of a half of a percent. the stoxx 600 is seeing 8/2 gainers as opposed to losers on the stoxx 600. when it comes to the single european equity markets, we're seeing reversal of yesterday's trade. the ftse 100 up by a quarter percent. the dax up by a third of a percent. we're also seeing some stronger gains for the cac 40 and the ftse mib a lot of it is drive bin whatn s going on in the sectors. all the sectors are in the green. some out-performers here are food and beverage. autos also doing well. european car sales rose nearly 8% in the month of may rebounding after a dip in april and nearing pre-crisis levels. nearly all manufacturers posted gains with suzuki and toyota leading the charge with sales growth of 21% and 20%. germany's daimler outperformed its european peers with a 14% rise in volumes. however speaking on cnbc earlier, schroeder's fund manager said investors