A French Foreign Legionnaire | Michel Euler/AFP via Getty Images UK drops objections to EU military unit Brits wanted to remove any doubt that the EU was planning a military HQ.

After weeks of stalling, the U.K. agreed on the setting up of a new EU military unit that some countries see as a first step toward a military HQ for the bloc.

Skeptical officials, however, suggest the delay was more about political posturing than anything else, as final approval will now be given on the same day as the U.K.'s general election.

Despite receiving broad backing in March, the legal text backing the Military Planning and Conduct Capabilities unit was finally agreed this week by officials dealing with the legal and financial issues of EU foreign policy, three diplomats confirmed. It will be approved by ambassadors on Wednesday before being signed off on by member countries on June 8.

London, long an opponent of EU defense integration, denied holding off on giving its approval so the news would be buried under an avalanche of election coverage. It hadn't objected to the small new unit — with a staff of around 30 — being set up but rather to the wording approving its creation. It was against the use of the words “operational HQ,” according to EU diplomats.

"We’re just working on some of the language to make sure we get it totally right,” British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson told journalists two weeks ago. The text was amended several times in an effort to appease the Brits and remove any suggestion that this was an EU military HQ.

For some countries, including Germany, France and Italy, the MPCC is exactly what the U.K. doesn't want — a small step toward a centralized EU military base.

The new unit will be responsible for training missions in Somalia, Mali and Central African Republic. It will plan and conduct EU security missions — but not all of them. Instead, it will take charge of what are known in EU jargon as “non executive” missions, which means they have only an advisory role and not a mandate to conduct actions instead of the host nation.