The European Union might integrate more smoothly after Brexit, once it no longer has a “permanently reluctant member in the room”, the former European Commission secretary general Catherine Day has said. Speaking at Newman University Church in Dublin, where she gave the Barrett Family Lecture 2018, Ms Day said that she saw “no room to hope” the UK would change its mind about leaving the European Union. She also said that security and defence were “an area where Europe would have to step up to the plate”. Although most states would remain in Nato, “economies of scale” in European defence forces could deliver similar “boots and helicopters”. Of the future of the EU, she said, “It may not last 1,000 years, but it will be here for a long time to come.”

Source: The Irish Times April 18, 2018 20:48 UTC