With withdrawal now complete, the United Kingdom and the European Union move on to negotiating a broader range of issues in their future relationship. This will include difficult negotiations on defence, foreign policy and security. Defence, in particular, emerged as a point of contention during the withdrawal as both sides had to manage the political fallout from a row over the EU satellite program Galileo.
Although differences on defence and security issues in the withdrawal phase demonstrate some of the challenges ahead, both sides can draw lessons for the coming negotiations. In this next phase, the UK and the EU should consider the long-term repercussions of decisions on defence and lessen the inflexibility that soured the political atmosphere at the start. It is in the interest of both sides to cultivate a new relationship that insulates European defence from the politics of Brexit.
