Hello and welcome. My name is Sophia Bash and you're listening to the CER podcast.

I'm in conversation today with Charles Grant, who is our director here at the CER.

Charles is here to talk about what every Brexit watcher wants to know these days, which is

what is the current thinking on the continent, what are the negotiation positions, the red

lines of Britain's European partners when it comes to Brexit.

And there's a lot of crystal ballgazing happening at the moment, trying to determine where

Paris, Berlin and other major actors

stand on these questions like freedom of movement reform and single market access for Britain.

But Charles, you have actually been to many of the European capitals and talked to government

officials, civil servants and parliamentarians. What was your impression? What is the mood on the continent right now

and how has it changed since the day of the referendum? Well, I've recently been in Paris, Brussels and

Berlin and I'm struck by my conversations there and in other capitals with the feeling that there

has to be united response to Brexit. Of course, Brexit is not everybody's

priority. People in Berlin are very concerned with the refugee crisis. People in Paris are concerned

about the euro. Nevertheless, Brexit does matter and I think the Commission, the Council,

the Parliament, the French, the Germans and others have decided there has to be a united response and that is in fact a very tough response to the British as the

British prepare to invoke Article 50 of the treaties.

What do you mean by a tough response?

Well for one thing our partners, Britain's partners are not prepared to do what they call pre-negotiations.

They won't negotiate with the British until the British press the button of Article 50.

Of course, once the British press the button, they've just got two years to do the entire

negotiation. So the British would quite like to do some of the negotiating before they press it,

...