Says the era of paying big sums to the eu is coming to an end. Good morning, everyone. Its thursday. We got a lot going on today. Glad youre with us. We got a jam packed hour for you, culminating later on in the day with the interview that geoff c Geoff Cutmore has with Vladimir Putin. Markets are trading modestly higher. The ftse 100 up 0. 1 . Benefiting from the weakness of the pound in the triggers of the article 50. Xetra dax up 0. 21. Cac 40 higher to the tune of 0. 1 . A fairly quiet session. Lets look at some sectors driving us higher today. What were seeing is that oil and gas is leading, when it comes to the sectors, because were seeing another day of increases for the oil price. The third day in a row. Financial services, Construction Material doing better. On the down side, autos, real estate, and telecoms slightly underperforming. Lets get back to our top story. Theresa may is set for another battle in parliament, this time to push through her great repeal bill. A piece of legislation aimed at removing eu law from britains statute book. The government will publish the white paper today, which will be debated, consulted on and very like likely amended over the next few several eu officials condemned theresa mays suggestion that cooperation over security could be hurt if a suitable Brexit Agreement is not reached. The leader of the socialist block, which is the second largest in the european parliament, said mays comments felt like blackmail and were outrageous. Weve heard from david davis, the brexit minister in the uk, that they did not threaten the uk. He said that on british radio this morning. Reacting to the uks triggers of article 50, the brexit negotiator said the mood on the continent had changed. My impression is brexit has created a sentiment in the public opinion. Saying were critical towards the European Union, were not so tup stupid as the brits to go out or destroy it. Thats my feeling in a certain way what happened in britain has changed the mood on the continent. Lets get out to willem marx in malta. Were less than 24 hours into the start of the official brexit negotiations between the eu and uk, already were hearing a war of words when it comes to the brexit bill and security. Absolutely. Forgive me for the bad sound behind me. Theresa may tried so hard i will wait for that to finish. There will be one more bell. All right. Were all set. Theresa may tried so hard to to give a positive spin yesterday. Both to the house of commons and the europeans listening to her letter, but if you listened between the lines, you heard an implicit threat and it goes to show how important messages will be over the next two years of negotiations. Both sides will be playing to their own individual constituencies. Theresa may will have to face down some brexiters in her party, keep the party happy with the concession shell have to make to strike a deal. Europeans with elections concerned about not giving too much away to the uk. Here in malta, we have seven europeans heads of states, donald tusk, jeanclaude juncker, all are meeting here today. This is long planned. But im convinced that brexit will be a major topic of conversation for many of them as the European Council come up with their negotiations guidelines over the next 24 hours that will be delivered to the European Commission for them to start planning quite how those negotiations will go. What are the mo one of the most contentious issues is the payment of the brexit bill, the invoice. David davis saying we will fulfill our requirements, well pay an invoice, but it wont be the 51 billion sterling everyone is talking about. Is there a risk this will take up the bigger chunk of the next year . Presumably from the perspective of david davis he wants to avoid major sticking points but also make sure britain is not seen by brits as having a negative deal over negotiations. That divorce bill seems to be one of those issues they will not be ability to easily find common ground. One option is to agree on a number, another is to agree on a calculation. David mccallister said these kinds of numbers being limited within a twoyear period are unrealist. They are paying into european budgets long into the future especially during a transition period. What will happen then in the next couple days. We know the eu 27 members, it will have to agree to the guidelines. Those will have to be approved by all the parliaments . How does that work before the official, official brexit negotiations start in may. Yes. So theyll, as you say forgive me again for that loud noise here at the congress. I think its calling people from the paneuropean party to this congress in the hotel here in malta. Those guidelines will have to be set out over the next 24 hours. That will be passed to the commission, they will turn the guidelines into specific negotiating points. They will then give the mandate to Michelle Barnier in malta. Hes been given the trust of the European Union and commission to take those negotiations to britain, one of the big question marks besides where the negotiation positions will be, is where the exact negotiations will take place. No one knows if that will be in london, brussels, other parts of europe. That, again, has not been clarified. Willem, thank you very much for that. Maybe you want to go to that panel, too. Youve been called several times. Thank you very much. Email the show. The address is streetsignseurope cnbc. Com. You can also find us on twitter, streetsignseurope cnbc and tweet me at carolincnbc. Coming up, breaking the ice, Energy Leaders and diplomats meet to discuss development of the arctic region. Well hear from Alexandra Novak after this short break. So youre having a party . How nice. Ill be right there. And the butchery begins. What am i gonna wear . This party is super fancy. Lets go. Im ready. Are you my uber . [ horn honks ] hold on. The biggest week in tv is back. [ doorbell rings ] partay Xfinity Watchathon week starts april 3. Get unlimited access to all of netflix and more, free with xfinity on demand. President trump said he is ending the war on coal with his rollback of obam mraaobamas environmental policies, some say this could open up oil drilling in the arctic. The International Arctic form in russia brings together heads of state to talk about that issue. Joining us now from the arctic form is denmarks foreign minister. Thank you very much for taking the time, minister. I appreciate it. It is unique to see the Foreign Ministers of norway, denmark and iceland traveling to russia for this specific forum. You all have been staunch cri c critics of russia after the annexation of crimea. Does this indicate theres some softening of the tensions . No, its just a followup on the strategy that we think its the right strategy, dual track strategy, on one hand firm on sanctions and criticizing russia because of sanctions in ukraine and crimea, because they dont fulfill the minsk agreement, on the other hand we have a dialogue on areas where we think its appropriate and where we also have interests. Arctic is a low tension area, as we see it, we have common interests and a lot of things to talk about. It seems like a diplomatic balancing act youre trying to strike. You said the arctic is a low tension area for you. In the talks you held with the Russian Foreign minister yesterday and today, you are also talking about other issues, potentially also russias plans to lay more Gas Pipelines through danish waters, for example . No, not that particular agenda. That didnt we didnt talk about that. We have not got the letter from an official, an official letter yet. We will wait and see whats in that letter. We talked about a lot of Different Things yesterday. Talked about the western balkans, syria, libya. And we talked about ukraine and demonstrators around russia and so on. So its it was a Good Opportunity to have an open dialogue on other issues than the arctic. How much talk was there about brexit given that yesterday we saw the official triggering of article 50. You set a brexit task force out after the vote. You have major interests in the uk given that its such an important trading partner for you. As a small and open economy, how worried are you about the fallout from this . Well, of course its a big question back home in denmark. How were going to deal with the situation where we have to recognize that the uk will leave the eu and will be eu 7 that have to Work Together after that we think we should be able to find an agreement where everybody, perhaps not as happy but can live with the new situation, and as you also just talked about, we have big interests in this area because we have a lot of fisheries going on there. We have a tradition of delivering quite a lot of foods also to the uk. On the other hand, we know that uk, of course, also is quite dependent on the rest of eu, regarding their ability to also have a functioning society. We have a lot of danes in the uk, au uk, and the uk has a lot of people staying in the netherlands. At the end of the day i believe well find a good solution. I know you applied for the European Medicine Agency to relocate from london to denmark. Could that be a winwin for you . Of course we think that we have everything that is needed to have the ema placed in copenhagen. We have a long tradition in the pharmaceutical area. We have very big airports. You can quickly get around. We have Good Condition force families living and staying in denmark. We think were quite attractive. Were working hard on that. Thats also, on the other hand. Just a part of the divorce situation. We have to find a New Residence for the ema. We think that it would be very good idea to based on criteria, its a good idea to put it in denmark. If im not mistaken, mr. Samuelson, your Prime Minister is meeting donald trump today. We know that other meetings with european leaders have been somewhat ice yeah to put it mildly. What realistically are you expecting from that meeting today . Given that, again, you have strong trade links with the u. S. But also openly criticized policies like the travel ban. Yeah. We have a long tradition of having strong ties to the u. S. I think well that will be underlined today from both sides. At the time we are up front when its needed that the danes and troops support in Different Countries around the world. We have lost quite a lot of lives in afghanistan. And i know that everybody in the u. S. Recognizes that denmark really is into the game when it is needed. Therefore i also think the two President Trump and my Prime Minister, they will have a good meeting today. Theyll have an open and frank discussions on where we differ in perspectives. Of course hopefully we will also know more of how u. S. Sees the situation and the president sees the situation after the election. Because theres no doubt that we are concerned every time that the u. S. Steps back or indicates that they will step back from the very, very good warm relations in the transatlantic, that we value so high in denmark. Mr. Samuelson, i appreciate your time. Thank you very much for that. Now, geoff also spoke to the Russian Energy minister, alexander novak, at the conference and asked his thoughts on the Current Oil Price volatility. Translator in my opinion were seeing a gradual stabilization of the market. An increased in market demand after the winter decrease. Currently we see reserve growth is falling with each week. This is an indication of an improvement in the situation in the market. Theres little doubt that the main factor influencing this is a reduction in production by the countries that signed the agreement on the 10th of december in vienna. Opec members and countries not members of opec. Currently there is a reduction of approximately 1. 5 Million Barrels a day coming on to the market. The overall compliance is fairly high at 94 . We will be following this compliance as we move forward. When will russia achieve 100 complian compliance . Russia is reducing its Oil Production in stages. In accordance with the plans that we worked out voluntarily with our production companies. In addition, i can tell you, the decrease in production in january and february was ahead of the tempo with regards to our initial plans. Currently in march, we have already reached a reduction level of 200,000 barrels a day. We anticipate complying with the figures set forth in the agreement by the end of april. This will be a reduction of 300,000 barrels. I believe you already said that you wont talk about extending the agreement until the ministers meeting in may. What is it you most need to see to feel comfortable about an extension . Stability in price . Good compliance by other countries . Pick up in demand . Whats the key variable for you as the minister here . Of course, first and foremost is the compliance with the agreement by those countries that are party to that agreement. Undoubtedly, this could be a more important factor, is the situation on the market linked with the balance between supply and demand and the situation with regards to the development of the situation with oil reserves and oil product reserves in the oecd countries and with the countries in the world as a whole. We will be following this closely. It will be important for us to know whats going to happen in april. The forecast for may and june and for the second half of next year. The objective that was set during the signing of the agreement, why we all reached the agreement, firstly was because the terms to achieve a balance in the market with regards to supply and demand were shorter. We saw that over the last three years supply has been greater than demand. And that had a negative influence on the market and on investment. Therefore this is a key issue. What figures we will have after fing things have been balanced out after the first half of the year. The possibility of this agreement being extended for another half year are embedded in the agreement itself and the mechanisms. The countries have this capacity, but we will be taking this decision later. I think it will be in may. An extension can only be applied at ministerial level between countries of the agreement. Not only countries of the Monitoring Committee but all 24 countries as a whole. Later on today, geoff will be moderating a panel at the arctic forum with the russian president , Vladimir Putin as well as the leaders of finland, iceland. Make sure you do catch that coverage from 12 00 cet onwards. The u. S. Environmental protection has been given vw the goahead to sell diesel vehicles in america again. They have been sitting on a backlog of unsold vehicles in the country since the emissions scandal came to light in 2015. Shares in toyota are trading lore after t lower after the automaker said it is recalling 2. 9 million vehicles because of faulty air bags made by takata. Were joined by the head of equities at mfm moranti. Great to speak to you about some of your stock picks. One of your picks today is autoliv. This has to do with the takata recalls. What is behind this stock . They are the leader in pass serve security which includes safety belts, and also air bags. But what is interesting thats whats happening with takata. Takata had the recall of 42 million air bags, and now we think key system will buy takata and that will concentrate the market further. Auto domingu autoliv is gaining market share which is positive, but what we also like is we think they will increase their margins, maybe even raise prices. Now its almost becoming a monopoly on the passive side, but we like the active side, what they need for selfdriving cars. So a big play on that trend. Theyve been investing heavily in r d, and were rumored to also buy takatas assets, so they wont do it. So theyll have money for share buybacks and to give back to shareholders. Thats interesting. They dont have the great capital structure. We think they have too much cash. Another thing you like is ralph lauren. Stock is down 50 in the last two years. Why do you think now is the right time to get in . The margins fell from 16 to 7 during the last five years. Its a value stock. Wall street consensus is bearish. The ceo left in february. But we like the restructuring plan. They have a plan called way forward. They want to create leaner inventory, close 25 of point of sales. We believe in the brand. We think its a cheap stock. The enterprise value is 6 billion, trading at 0. 8 times sales. We think its a cheap stock and the brand is not dead. They have a big opportunity also in asia. Only 10 of sales are in asia. We think its an interesting con tearian play. What about broader asset allocations, specifically when it comes to equities in the aftermath of the triggering of article 50 and the failed healthcare bill. Where do you want to put your money in light of the european elections. Theres a lot at play. For brexit, we think its very difficult to play. Article 50, almost a call on the pound. Are you bullish or bearish . We think its difficult to know the impact of brexit. For the french election, we would say were relying more on the side its a positive catalyst for europe. That probably the farright will not make it. For the u. S. , we lie on the cautious side. We think the debt ceiling has a much higher risk of not going through than the market is pricing. Wall street has been pricing a strong stimulus within stocks. A lot of stocks trading at high valuation because of tax hopes, many different aspects. Those might be under pressure if you see the fraction within the right party, without the republicans, and that might not go through with the tax issues that are coming this week. On the 28th of april, we have the debt ceiling again. If the debt ceiling is not going through, it might question all those stimuli that are currently priced in you might see a correction in the u. S. Market. Youve seen that already you have, over the last week. Weve been short u. S. Steel