Palacio graduated from the Lycée Français (Baccalauréat on Mathematics) with honors granted by the French Government to “the best foreign student who finished studies that year”.

Inspired by legal legitimacy as the mark of identity of the EU, her main addresses and reports have pinpointed the legislation on internal market as well as the security area, especially focused on justice and home affairs and human rights.

During her time in office, Spain and Morocco formally ended their 2002 military standoff over the uninhabited islet of Perejil, or Leila, and agreed to improve the highly charged relations between the two countries.

Since 2011, Palacio has written monthly comments on global strategy for international media organization Project Syndicate.

In 2003, Palacio created together with other prominent European personalities the Medbridge Strategy Center, whose goal is to promote dialogue and mutual understanding between Europe and the Middle-East.

In October 2001 the same newspaper, under the heading "Europe’s Lawyer", published an extensive feature article on her in its supplement on "12 influential players on the world business stage".