>> coming up on "bloomberg best ," the most compelling conversations on finance and europe. brexit caused constant debate. agreementfree trade with the european union. worse withde will be the u.k.. >> we need more vision, less bureaucracy. nejra: it has been a year of transformation. the buy word is long-term

sustainability. >> we have not kept pace. nejra: it has been a year of transition for europe's central bank. >> we are not that yet there. nejra: it is all ahead on this special edition of "bloomberg best." nejra: hello, and welcome. i am nejra cehic. on this special edition of "bloomberg best," we will look back. let's start with brexit, the dominant story of 2017 in politics and business. negotiations over the uk's divorce from the european union not start until spring. leaders in britain and europe were staking out positions and

anticipating the economic impact. in january, theresa may came to the world economic forum in davos. the message i brought here to outside ofat britain the european union, we want to build a truly global britain. i britain that is an advocate for free trade, free markets around the world, and a briton that is ensuring we are taking those opportunities. i want free trade agreements with the european union. i want the best possible access for trading and operating within the european markets for goods and services. i want to ensure that we can 11 --inances in the city in the city of london. >> the pound has gone down by about a fifth. you seem fairly relaxed with that.

where withlevel parity with the dollar where you worry about the pound. >> we have seen different movements in the pound in the last six months. we have also seen through the other economic data is the strength of the uk's economy. we were the fastest major growing economy. we had figures which showed onceloyment coming down again. we see a fundamental strength in the u.k. economy. i believe it's an economy people want to invest in. since the brexit vote we have seen major companies like google, facebook, making investments. a cheap currency was part of the incentive. was there a point where the cheap currency becomes a vulnerability. >> i think what people will look

at is the fundamental strength of our economy and opportunities in the united kingdom. looking at the economy for the future, looking at how we can ensure the environment in the u.k. is the right environment, the best environment to do in -- to do business and invest. i look across the atlantic who takesnald trump, a protectionist attitude towards trade. what we say to him on that? >> if we look around the world generally, there is a question about free trade. it has been questioned. it goes to what i was saying earlier, people feel globalization has been negative and left them behind. we must show responsible behavior by business. government is ensuring economies work for everyone.

also, show people the value of free trade. trading around the world's enterprise, is the engine of growth, the engine of our economies. this needs to be an open negotiation. the aim is not to punish the u.k., but when you are a member of the club it is better to be .ut the situation after brexit will be worse for the u.k., and not as good as it is today or before. a blueprint. i don't want to jump to conclusions. say there is no deal, what industries will suffer the most because of this? to speaky, i refuse about no deal. youru start talking about plan b it means you do not believe in your plan a. it ifonvinced we can make we negotiate on principles.

it must be about citizens, the movement of citizens. there are 4 million people from the eu who work in the u.k.. london is among the 10 biggest french cities. we will be capable of discussing the future and the future of our relationship needs to be very close. this idea that britain is andg to crash out of europe ,ecome some low tax deregulated it is not going to happen. the risk we face is if we do this hard brexit, the economy will suffer. you actually might end up in the labourthout -- with a

government further left than any government has been. >> i never thought the credit risk would be a labour government. been very frank about this. you combine a hard right populist punch in the form of you are going to do the country some damage. see any situation where we would have a second referendum on brexit? >> we don't see a second referendum. we don't know when the general election will be. what we want is parliament to be able to hold the government to account and what it is doing, challenge the middle as it goes

through, and everything i disagree with in the way parliament should be run, parliament should be there to hold government to account. this bill has enormous powers. you don't think there will be a change when we see the deal? side, doe transition you see a transition is something that can be achieved now by the government, or is it something that takes time to negotiate? >> i think it is important to get that market down now. it is going to be a transition, otherwise we are less than a fromand a half away leaving the european union. if there is no transition agreed to in march, 2019, which investment will be investing. there is going to be enormous uncertainty. , sodanger of the cliff edge

i think we should set that up now. we made that very clear during our many meetings in brussels with michel barnier. eua: do you think the transition with a yes? i get is many recognize the sense of having back, because britain is a big economy, one of the biggest in europe. a good tradebe relationship. i don't think anybody wants to see us in the direction of some massive trade competition between britain and the eu in the future, which is why we want tariff free trade access. the quest for clarity on brexit remains a prime concern for all of europe heading into 2018. we will continue our review of 2017. important elections gave new energy. must make our institutions

more flexible. nejra: this is bloomberg. ♪

nejra: this is "bloomberg best 2017 in conversation: europe." i am nejra cehic. in france, far right candidate was polling well in national elections, and many feared a popular search across the continent that could further weaken the european project. it was on the minds of global leaders like jamie dimon shared his concerns at davos. the things i worry about brexit, the effect on britain and the gdp in the u.k., it is about what it says for the long-term health in europe. the wishful thinking, that

brexit would cause the european union to look at what went wrong and fix it. what went wrong has gone wrong for everybody, not just britain. it looks like they are doubling down. ineurope is not fixing response to brexit? power goes to brussels, how much inflexibility and capital you will have. i am hoping they do it. the eurozone may not survive. that is a complex answer. it is a long-term pessimistic view. unless they change. they are going to have to change to be more competitive globally. they are doing ok right now. i say this out of respect for the european people. they are going to have to change. it may be forced by politics or leadership, we will have to see.

emmanuel macron's victory was a encouraging sign of strength. while far right parties did make gains, they help swing the momentum back. >> i am a firm believer in europe, and during my election campaign, a lot of people told me, you are crazy. you are pro-european and you think you can win in france? it is feasible because people understand we need europe in this current environment because we have european values. ,ow the challenge to how europe with united states and china,

that is not the case today. informing the main weakness in europe is the lack of projects and ambition. an approach trying to fix crisis at the very last minute without any perspective on projects. europe is the relevant scale. promote european emerging markets. it is critical we have french leaders, and european leaders, and europe has to be stronger. investment in economy, what does it mean? we have to fix tenuous objectives for europe. we have to decide some

convergences and some investment decisions in order to reach the subject. -- myl have to change generation, there is one alternative. do we want to dismantling of europe? years ofsed using brexit and now it is all about brexit. now we have a lot of tensions in europe. in a few months or years, you will have other countries , and thinking i am not comfortable with bureaucracy. vision, lessore bureaucracy. i think we have a good to get more for european development. , wescussed some days ago

are ready to make any reform only in line with the primary law. as soon as we get amendments to the primary law, we can do more. to sticks we are bound to the given primary law, we have to make more dynamic , but pragmatic in a governmental way. he said, yes, of course. agree as soon as possible -- in common european law as soon as we get amendments.

pragmatic to move in the direction to get more efficiency for europe, in this in to convince the people the european member states that europe matters. >> don't you have to move in the direction of shared that responsibility? european bonds seems to be the only way, if you really want a deeper closer europe? the governor of the bank of england has made things more difficult. been we cans always if we havearing to implement common

decisions. you can end in economic disaster. >> in spain we have the ongoing issue with apollonia. in italy -- in spain we have the ongoing issue with catalonia. >> we in europe must find ways to combine the overall systemic dimension with the national and local dimension. ,e need all of these dimensions and we need to reshape our instrument in europe to make that happen. yousef: what else can europe due to mitigate the risks of that? or address them properly? are some european challenges which required european responses, like migration, like security, like jobs.

there are national responses which are insufficient. we need to integrate them with a higher level of policy. yousef: there is a lot more work that needs to be done in order to slow down that trend we are seeing for further autonomy. >> these are structural problems and it is a window of opportunity to deal with them because the european economy is growing at a healthier rate, and there's lots of job creation. must reform our institutions and make them more flexible. nejra: much more ahead as we revisit the top coverage on bloomberg in 2017. up next, i talked with vladimir putin and his relationship with donald trump. like the rest of the industry

, trading in the markets business was muted. nejra: this is bloomberg. ♪

nejra: you are watching a special edition of "bloomberg best," highlighting conversations from 2017 in finance. i am nejra cehic. it was a busy year on the global stage for vladimir putin.

he met with donald trump in hamburg. he met with china's president xi jinping. in october he shared a stage in moscow with other world leaders at the russian forum on a panel. there he addressed the controversial topic of his relationship with donald trump, and the state's relationship with the u.s.. we saw each other one time. we had a couple conversations on various issues of mutual interest. we also discussed the syrian issue. issues we are cooperating with the americans on many tracks. yes, there are certain problems. certain confrontations. we are capable of coming to

solutions, to coordinate our approaches. as to our relationship, you can judge for yourselves. on many occasions, certain forces are using russian-american relations to address the internal political problems. we are waiting for this process to come to an end. intereste fundamental -- our cooperation in the energy field. tirelessly oning those conflicts, and solutions to those conflicts.

cybercrime, these are fundamental interests that will change the nature of relations for the better. do you think donald trump is a hostage of the american political system? that seems to be what you said. believe trump, his --racter -- i'm confident and to work jointly in interests of the american economy. know real friends are interested in establishing

cooperation. irrespective of the current political situation. 2017'swe've got more of top interviews just ahead. the complexity of the year in monetary policy. up, pain and again in the financial sector. the head of the biggest banks speak freely. this is bloomberg. ♪

nejra: you are watching a special edition of "bloomberg 2017 byrapping up replaying the top interviews. let's look back at how the leaders of some of europe's biggest tanks describe the state of their institutions in the industry. bank never want to run the just chasing after market share. long-termrd is sustainability. revenues are important. we need to make sure we are relevant to france. invest in people.