This is the BBC.

Welcome to the EU after Brexit, a special hour-long programme combining Radio 4's The Bottom Line

and the Briefing Room. We're examining the economic and political future of the EU once Britain

has left in exactly a year's time. Just what is the new vision for Europe?

Hello and welcome to this special programme in which the briefing room and the bottom line,

the regular occupants of the 8 o'clock Thursday slot, have come together in analytical harmony

at a significant moment. It's 365 days and three hours to Brexit, give or take any leap seconds and the odd minute or two.

You'll hear some familiar elements of both our programmes in this hour, but we've combined forces

on one main theme. Which is that we British often discuss Brexit as though it was all about us,

but it isn't. The European Union will

still be there after March the 29th, 2019, and will still be hugely important to us. So for this

hour, we'll be talking about them. How people in the EU think the union might develop with the UK

not there. Our absence will make a difference. The UK is almost 13% of

the EU population. We put money in, shaped vital policies like the liberal single market and the

enlargement of the Union and resisted others like greater integration. So what effect will our

absence have? And regardless of Brexit, the EU faces some pretty big decisions.

It's in the middle of a debate about how to reform the working of the euro.

Should it integrate more, create a political union to supplement the currency union,

or should it slow down the drive towards federalism?

And how should it cope with the pressures of populism, a major

electoral force in many EU countries, and one that often comes with a Eurosceptic slant?

In a few minutes, I'll be looking at the political vision for the EU once Britain has left.

...