EU nations seal military pact that could keep Britain in continental defence circles

By Henry Samuel in Paris

and Peter Foster EUROPE EDITOR BRITAIN is to join European nations in an initiative to coordinate military deployments outside the EU framework.

The European Intervention Initiative (EII) joins states prepared to react to emergencies including natural disasters, intervention in a crisis, or evacuation of nationals without requiring any help from Nato or the US.

Florence Parly, France’s defence minister, said: “European defence needs a common strategic culture.” The idea was first mooted by Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and is seen by Eurosceptics as an embryo for some kind of European armed force. But the initiative has been seized on by British diplomats as a potential vehicle for post-brexit defence cooperation.

EII will operate outside the bloc and combine Europe’s only two powers (France and Britain) with the military capacity and strategic will to deploy force overseas. EU defence ministers are soon to agree a pact, the Permanent Structured Cooperation (Pesco), with a multibillion euro defence fund. Britain is unlikely to be included in that.

Ms Parly told Le Figaro: “This is clearly an initiative that allows the association of non-eu states. The UK has been very keen because it wants to maintain co-operation with Europe.”

Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, welcomed the opportunity to involve Britain but stressed the existing EU defence pact or any “common military strategy” would be “closely related”, which will stoke Brexiteer fears that the force could involve Britain in a “European army by the back door”.

Mr Macron is thought to be keen to involve Britain in future European defence cooperation as one of the continent’s most effective militaries. Despite Brexit, the UK wants to maintain access to continental databases, weapons contracts and intelligence sharing.

The EII countries are Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia and Portugal.