European leaders have bitterly disagreed on the best way to handle the large numbers of refugees crossing the Mediterranean, once again sparking talk of crisis in the EU. And yet in today's disagreements could lie the roots of a stronger union.
STOCKHOLM – In 2003, when the European Union drafted its first security strategy, the continent’s citizens lived in a seemingly safe world. Indeed, the document’s opening sentence confidently proclaimed that “Europe has never been so prosperous, so secure nor so free.” The EU’s foreign policy in its immediate neighborhood was focused on creating “a ring of friends,” from Morocco to Russia and the Black Sea.
STOCKHOLM – In 2003, when the European Union drafted its first security strategy, the continent’s citizens lived in a seemingly safe world. Indeed, the document’s opening sentence confidently proclaimed that “Europe has never been so prosperous, so secure nor so free.” The EU’s foreign policy in its immediate neighborhood was focused on creating “a ring of friends,” from Morocco to Russia and the Black Sea.