You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it. My guest today can stake a strong

claim to be Europe's consummate political operator. Jean-Claude Juncker rose from humble beginnings as the son of a Luxembourg steelworker

to become his country's prime minister for 18 consecutive years. And when that came to an end,

he re-emerged as the choice of EU leaders to lead the European Commission. His term running the EU's executive branch has just come to an end,

and there's no doubt what issue will dominate the reviews of his tenure, Brexit, the unprecedented

decision of an EU member state to quit the club. The protracted UK departure, which will be formalised on January the 31st,

says much about Britain, but it also says plenty about the state of the EU. To what extent

does Brexit represent a European failure? And what happens to Britain and the EU project now? Well, I'm joined by Jean-Claude Juncker

in Luxembourg. Welcome to Hard Talk. My pleasure. What will your emotions be, do you think?

On that moment, Brexit formally happens. January 31st, midnight in Europe. What will you be feeling?

I'm sad since the 23rd of June, 2016. I don't think that this is a good decision taken by the British

people, but it has to be respected. The British economy will suffer from this and the European economy

also, but not in the same way.

But I'm sad, it's an a historic decision.

It is an historic decision because never before has a nation quit, left the European club,

and it happened on your watch. Do you feel a sense of failure?

Yes, no.

I don't think that the explanation for the British no

has to be found in Europe

because what we did during my mandate was more or less swimming into the direction of basic

British requests less bureaucracy and so on and so forth but I made one major

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