Up in the u. S. This is the pulse. Live from london. European leaders meeting for a second round of talks in brussels. Russia and greece remain very much top of the agenda. On russia, the group has pledged to extend sanctions until the end of the year. For greece the eu has asked the government to submit a more solid reform plan. Lets bring in our reporters. Caroline connan joins us from brussels. Marcus joins us from athens. Caroline, lets start with you. Caroline on russia, which was on the agenda like greece in brussels, they decided to put off the decision to aging summit. A june summit. The eu sanctions expire in july. They might extend these until the end of the year. Which would match the timeline of the minsk agreement. [no audio] guy we seem to be having technical difficulties from brussels. You are looking at live pictures from brussels as leaders gather in enter the building. We will monitor what they have to say. We will get a sense of where we stand on two issues of russia and greece. Lets go to athens. Marcus is standing by. How would you characterize last nights minisummit . What progress was made as mr. Tsipras met with leaders of france, germany and the ecb . Marcus a month since the february 20 agreement which culminated in the minisummit and relations reached a low. People or complaining about little progress. A chance to press the reset button. Greece now has to submit a list of reforms. One of the keywords in the statement is ownership. Which is something that can probably please both sides. Four years it has been a complaint of greeks not taking ownership of reforms, even under previous governments under greeces bailout. From the greek side it has been a complaint that greece is being dictated to and is not really able to tailor its own policies. We saw this this week with the humanitarian crisis bill the government passed. Which was a flashpoint because officials claimed this had an unclear fiscal impact and there was not proper consultation. This is a chance to reset and move forward. The difficulty remains on whether greece can deliver reforms that will please greece s creditors and some hardliners within tsiprass syriza party. That is not a group he has shown much willingness to take on in the past. But the positive that can be taken out of this, after a month of bickering about what the february agreement means and what processes need to be followed if the leaders yesterday were able to hammer that out and we are able to move forward, maybe theres a chance we might get to the real substance everyone is looking for. Guy talk about the background. Weve seen a reexamination of money being taken out of greek banks. It seems that the liquidity shortage in the country for paying bills seems to be getting more and more crippling. Marcus the money is really tight. We are coming towards the end of march. March has been a difficult month because of the Debt Repayment schedule, it has been very hard. After todays payments of about 300 million to the imf and people being rolled over, all the indications are that greece will be able to pay pensions. Greece is not going to default internally in terms of pensions or externally. The question remains how much money is left in the bank. It has really put a big strain on greeces coffers all of this. No one really knows. It is very unclear what the picture is of greeces finances. The sound from brussels yesterday, we are good until april. The question is not if greece can is now if greece can submit a list of reforms, some bailout funds will be dispersed, which will ease pressure. Guy the pressure still seems to be high. Looks like the eurogroup want to keep it that way. Marcus, thank you. Lets talk more about the greek story and whats happening with russia. Darren berg barron berg behrenbergs chief economist. I would be surprised it tells us why Angela Merkel is stepping up. How frayed are relations . That article may be an exaggeration. Theres a sense in berlin, if the greeks dont play ball, theyre at the risk of grexit. I dont think anyone expects greece to leave. As far as the economic and Financial Impact of a possible grexit, much of the rest of europe beliefs we can handle it. They no longer pose a risk to the stability in europe. There is an angle, what does greece do on its own for that corner of the world, which is a concern for overall politics. That is one issue bringing Angela Merkel into the debate. Guy how bad has it got between schaeuble and varoufakis . We have gotten to the point where these guys are never going to seem eye to eye. This is why merkel is getting involved. Dr. Schmieding the greek behavior has been pretty bad. You should not install your creditor is a rule they should write down. Schaeuble is a seasoned political operator. I do not think personal emotions would take over. He will judge everything on its merit. With the german public and with the public across europe, greek behavior has not helped. All major decisions about greece have to go through the german bundestag. In domestic german politics this does not play well. Hence the greeks better behave more positively towards their creditors in order to get the german bundestag and other parliaments in europe to approve more money. Guy how critical is it from a financial point of view for greece . We understand the ecb is limiting t bills and telling greek banks not to buy more. Whether or not the banks go along with that, we will wait and see. There are pension payments that need to be made. Marcus, in athens, saying he thinks we are not going to see any missed payments this month. It is getting crunchy. Dr. Schmieding hard to say how crunchy it is. Probably the greek state has a few things it can still do to make major payments. It can delay payments to some supplier. It can try to get more money out of Social Security and other funds, state owned enterprises. We are not yet at a stage where day by day the greek government might be forced to default. This atmosphere where the government has to look here and therefore money and may have to put pressure on state enterprises, that atmosphere is extremely bad for the economy. It is extremely bad for tax revenues. So greece can get financially by for one more month it will be a last month for the economy. Guy stay with us. We need to talk about russia and discuss the overlap between these two issues. That brings us to our twitter question. For europe, what poses the bigger risk . Russia or greece . Let us know what you think. flacqua guyjohnsontv, join the conversation. We always get interesting responses. What else is on our radar spains sabado bank will buy tsb for 1. 5 million pounds. The spanish bank plans a 1. 6 billion euros share offer to find the takeover. Two of standard charters biggest investors have urged the bank to move its headquarters from london. This follows the chancellor of the exchequer George Osbornes announcement that the u. K. Bank levy will be increased by a third. Credit squeeze facing a critical investigation criminal investigation in italy. Being sued for damages up to 3 billion euros. The probe relates to the acquisition of another italian bank. Coming up cementing a 40 billion deal. Holcim and lafarge finally reach an agreement to form the worlds biggest cement maker. Plus total eclipse of the sun. The first major one of the seller age. Solar age. Live pictures right now. Were there any Power Outages . Guy welcome back. Even watching the pulse. Let me take you to brussels, the leaders gather. Mr. Draghi and mr. Tsipras the greek Prime Minister working the room and trying to get some help. Theres a man who could give him some mario draghi. The president of playing a pivotal role. The man sitting just behind him looks like jeanclaude juncker, the head of the commission. The french president arriving for this meeting. The minisummit that took place last night merkel, francois hollande, mr. Tsipras and mr. Draghi seems to have generated more momentum. The sense seems to be that the ball is in the debeltsevegreeks court. Batman has to decide as he talks to mr. Renzi how far will he go, what can he do and allow syriza to stay intact . The leaders gathering in brussels. Lets get a sense of all this from holger schmieding. The meeting coming up with merkel in tsipras and tsipras this is about how much do i trust you. Dr. Schmieding that is the gist of the meeting monday. Germany would like to find out whether greece is serious with its recent nonmove or whether greece is ready to get back to where it was before the election. Namely, largely complying with obligations to creditors. If the new government, mr. Tsipras, gives spurlin and ms. Merkel the impression that they will but in large do what they have to do, do what they promised do what they have to do to justify 240 billion being given to them. If berlin gets the impression they will honor the commitment details can be phrased. If the breakdown of trust which seems to have happened on the technical level between athens and the troika, if that extends to higher levels of politics we will be in serious trouble. Greece has to grab that opportunity to convince them that greece is serious about reforms. Guy our twitter question of the day which poses the greatest threat to europe, russia or greece . They pose a different threat at different times. Dr. Schmieding russia is by far the biggest threat to europe. Greece is a small country at the fridge. We would love to help it but we cannot help it without setting conditions. These conditions have to be honored and we cannot go on breaking commitments because that would undermine the foundation of the eu. Russia is a big power with nuclear powers. Greece is misbehaving financially, russia is misbehaving militarily. That is a bigger threat. Guy how do think that threat will be manifested economically . We have seen an impact in the german economy. How they get dragged how big a drag is russia . Dr. Schmieding its modest. Last year it did interrupt the core european actors for half a year with a fall in german business investment. Now, a new round of fighting in january and february it was very bad but it was not as choppy. Less of a surprise. At the moment, russia posners behavior is a small drag on core europe. A big drag last summer. We are getting used to it and we can only hope russia does not get worse. Guy in terms of the way the impact happens, you deal with it and you move on. Do the shocks get bigger . Is a diminishing return . Do we get immune to it or fatigued by the problem of russia . Dr. Schmieding if russia stays as it has been for the last three months, the occasional bad fighting, russian economic crisis but nothing beyond that scale of what we have seen i think deep drag on the core european economies will diminish further. The tail winds from the Exchange Rate from cheap oil and the European Central bank will take over more forcefully. If russia does a very big war like sending its tanks all the way to kiev or descends into domestic political chaos then we would have different confidence impact on the european economy. We would have serious political repercussions. Guy earlier hsbc called and end to the dollarbull run. The euro has come down aggressively over the last few weeks. What youre right do you think will it take to maintain what euro rate do you think it will take to maintain a very early recovery in the european economy . Dr. Schmieding it is more dependent on sentiment. Oil helps. The eurozone would still have a recovery with growth rates getting towards 2 late this year if the dollareuro moves back to 1. 12 or 1. 15, which i consider possible. Guy it stays on track at that level . If they get stronger than that does it start to have an undermining effect . Dr. Schmieding a modest one. That is not big stuff. If it goes to 1. 35, that will be a big thing. One point 10 or 1. 2 zero that is 0. 1 of your eurogroup. Guy always a pleasure. Berenbergs chief economist. Tweet us, send us your thoughts. Holger thinks russia is the bigger threat and greece an irritant. We have had a few tweets suggesting a similar sentiment or join the conversation flacqua in guyjohnsontv. Well meet a couple who have set up in Investment Firm pushing to improve transparency for u. K. Investors. Looking for to that conversation. Also, concussion concern. This is a story that occupies a great deal of my brainpower. We take a look at the growing issue of head injuries in the sport. It does not actually featured this level, it also features from the kids playing. How do we deal with it in rugby . We will see you in a moment. Guy it is what everybody is talking about, the eclipse. We are getting their. In london, a gray sky above you. Probably as close as you are going to get to seeing it. Very close to the total eclipse in a few minutes time. Lets dwell on some m a stories. Plenty around europe. The 40 billion deal between lafarge in holcim is back on. Lets get the details from caroline hyde. Caroline 40 billion, the biggest deal since glencore in 2012 p 11 months in the making and they see a compromise in the 11th hour. Problems about the financials and about the management when it came to lafarge and holcim tying up to create the biggest cement maker. The first part has to do with finances. Holcim wanted the deal sweetened. They felt it should not be one for one in terms of share ratios. Their share ratios should get more their shareholders should get more. For every nine holcim shares you get 10 lafarge shares and vice versa. They also get their way when it comes to management. They thought that the chief executive of lafarge was not the right man to steer the unit. He is to play a key role, cochairman. They are still looking for the candidate. It will be a lafarge canada and the person has been identified. It is trying to work out when. This is a 40 billion deal across the board. A battle to find this compromise. All of that is surrounding Brunello Bruno lafonds capability. They promised savings, will they get there. Crh is going to be laughing they get their hands at 6. 5 billion euros of assets. Guy just to show you these pictures in london. Getting a little dark. More clouds than eclipse. Guy half past the hour. Everybody has been waiting for it. Almost there. Live pictures of the Solar Eclipse in europe. There are some people concerned that in the next hour or so we could see a shortage of electricity. We seem to have adopted a great deal of solar electricity over the last few years. If you are thinking of boiling the cattle and having a cup of tea maybe go outside and do not boil the kettle. The Solar Eclipse taking place. We talk about the electricity later. In the meantime let me talk to you about top headlines. Eu leaders meeting in brussels. They have made a pledge to extend sanctions against russia. Demanding more concrete reforms from greece. Time is running out to overcome a standout over a. Alexis tsipras says he is more optimistic after talks last night. Some other stories, the israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu pulling back from his campaign remarks that said he supports a twostate solution he told msnbc he remains committed to palestinian state hood if circumstances improve. Two days after Netanyahus Likud party won more seats than expected. The bank of englands chief economist has warned of the risk that we can inflation may persist. Haldane said the risks to the inflation outlook are skewed to the downside. And the chances of an Interest Rate rise or cut are probably and evenly balanced. A big bank news, sabadell is buying tsb in a deal worth two point 5 billion. We are joined by charles in madrid. Not enough to do the spanish banking, it feels it needs to do a deal and the u. K. Why . Charles it is about diversification. Sabadell like local spanish banks, banks which do not have an international presence, look over the last few years in spain and they suffered greatly in the difficult Economic Conditions in spain during the financial crisis. They look at rivals like bingo santander which were sheltered from the situation by large foreign business. Sabadell would like to get some diversification and shield itself in the future from being from having all its eggs in one basket. Guy these two banks know each other well. Tsb offloaded its banking operations to sabadell a while ago. Is it an obvious link . Charles excellent question. Sabadell is the fifth biggest bank in spain. It has quite cleverly increased its presence in spain through some acquisitions during the financial crisis. They were able to pick up assets cheaply in spain. It built up bulk. It is a midsize bank and it is making a big move into a new market which it does not have any real experience of. It has a link but it is a big step sabadell to move into the u. K. Guy from the british end of the story, do you think there should be concerned about management possibility to execute properly . Charles that is a difficult question. Sabadell is a bank which has well top management. Its ceo was the head of the mexican unit for bbva, very highly regarded here in spain with a strong track record before his move to sabadell. It is a bank with Good Management with some international experience. That said they are moving into a new market and a different culture. It is strongly regulated, highly competitive as santa and there will tell them. Guy fascinating thank you charles. Joining us from madrid. Lets go from banking to investments. My next guests say the u. K. Investment industry is lagging behind the u. S. When it comes to how firms treat clients. They argue that british Money Managers charge higher fees and are not transparent enough about what they are charging for. Allen and gina miller, cofounders of scm private, join us. How far are we behind the states . Gina considerably. They have been behaving in a more transparent way since 2004 or 2005. A good 10 years behind. You have got big u. S. Brands that have been giving their customers, their peers in the u. S. Transparency. It is something that needs to change in the u. K. U. K. Investors are being denied two basic rights. To know how much they are paying into know what they are paying for. Guy there is a change afoot. You already sense that inasmuch as a lot more money is beginning to flow into passive funds. Vanguard, etc. Have made huge progress and are beginning to migrate to the side of the pond. The visibility story on fees is beginning to change every here. As we make that move, how much more is there to go . Alan it is interesting to say that. What we have been saying the total cost, not just the cost of the fund. Lets say you are buying a Vanguard In