Post-Brexit Europe could be mired by short-sighted parochialism

Ana Palacio fears that the future safety of Europe has been jeopardised by Britain leaving the EU, with national interests returning to the fore for member states.

It is said that good things come to those who wait. If so, then the European Union’s new global strategy on foreign and security policy, more than a decade overdue, must be a very good thing.

Actually, it is exactly what Europe needs. But the timing of its release — in the immediate aftermath of the UK’s vote to leave the EU — could relegate it to irrelevance. How the EU moves forward with the strategy will be a bellwether for the future of the European project.