From the Centre for European Reform, this is the CEO podcast.

It is a critical moment. If we do not act with urgency, we would then severely undermine the liberal order.

Brexit means Brexit, and we're going to make a success of it.

The wind is back in Europe's sales.

We have now a window of opportunity, but it will not stay open forever.

Hello, you're listening to the CER Brexit Bulletin podcast with me, Beth Oppenheim,

and I'm sitting here in our Westminster office today with some of our resident Brexit experts.

So we've got Charles Grant, the CEO's director, Ian Bond, the Foreign Policy Director,

and Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow here.

Hello, everyone.

Hi, hi.

And we are recording this special Brexit edition of the

podcast exactly one week before Brexit day, the 31st of January 2020. And our conversation today is

going to span a number of Brexit related issues from the CEO's role after Brexit, the future for

UK EU trade and the fate of UK foreign policy. So Charles,

if we could just start with you, you open the bulletin issue by asking the very provocative question,

who needs the CEO? So can you explain to those who might be a little bit cynical? Why is the

CEO still needed after Brexit? Well, some people have said to us, do we really need the CER after we've left the EU?

And the answer is, of course we do, because the CIR has two important missions.

We've had these missions for more than 20 years, and they still pertain after Brexit.

The first mission is to come up with ideas and policies for reforming the EU so that it works better.

And the second mission is to improve

...