Hello and welcome to another MNX podcast. I'm Sam Wilkin, Brussels Bureau Chief, and today

we're going to talk about what happens under a no-deal Brexit. After the UK Parliament

rejected Theresa May's deal for the second time this week,

we have to accept that this is now a serious possibility.

The EU certainly thinks so and has been stepping up its preparations.

Here to talk us through them is our Brexit reporter Zosia Wannat.

Hello, Zosia.

Hi, hello.

Zosia, first of all, what's the latest after the deal?

Deal was rejected on Tuesday in the UK. What's the EU done since then?

So obviously, the European Union leaders seem to be very disappointed with the result of the vote on Tuesday.

But at the same time, they know that the possibility of a no-deal Brexit

is even more real now. They are all very confident that all the EU has to do right now is to

step up a no-deal planning, no-deal preparations and basically prepare for the worst.

On Wednesday, during the plenary session at the European Parliament, Michel Barnier,

EU chief negotiator, said that the talks, the Brexit talks, are now at the critical point

and the risk of a no deal is higher than ever,

but the EU is ready to face this situation, even if it doesn't really want to do that.

Is that a realistic assessment, though, because under this worst-case scenario,

that means Britain leaves the EU on the 29th of March.

That's in about two weeks' time.

And we'll have no relationship at all with it,

...