The EU must not undermine Nato by recreating its military structures, the UK defence secretary will tell European leaders.

As the bloc aims to deepen its defence cooperation, EU foreign and defence ministers are expected to agree at a meeting on Monday to establish a small military command centre in Brussels to aid “planning and conduct capability”.

Arriving in Brussels before the meeting, Michael Fallon said he would be urging EU leaders to cooperate through the atlantic defence union. “Today we are urging the European Union to cooperate more closely with Nato to avoid unnecessary duplication of structures and to work together on new threats, including the need to strengthen cybersecurity,” he said.

The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, is driving efforts to improve defence coordination among EU member states, with the aim of providing the bloc with strategic autonomy from its Nato allies, notably the US.



Weeks before Theresa May is expected to trigger article 50 negotiations, Fallon insisted Britain would continue to be a key military ally for the EU.

He said: “Although we are leaving the European Union, we continue to cooperate with our European partners on defence and security and in the fight against terrorism and aggregation.



“This month we are deploying troops to Estonia, later to Poland, and we are sending RAF jets to Romania. We also continue to play our part in the European mission in the Mediterranean, rescuing migrants and tackling people smuggling.”

Britain vetoed similar plans for EU military structures in 2011 and 2013 but it is not expected to block the current proposals, which have to be agreed by all member states.

The EU’s command control centre, due to be in operation this spring, will initially take charge of three existing EU military training missions in Mali, Somalia and the Central African Republic.

In a sign of the political sensitivities, however, countries are understood to have debated at length whether the head of the new body should be called a “commander” or “director” before opting for “director” as the more appropriate title.

Last September, Fallon prompted anger among EU member states when he vowed to veto any attempts to build an EU army, a proposal that has been backed previously by the commission president. He said then: “That is not going to happen. We are full members of the EU and we will go on resisting any attempt to set up a rival to Nato.”

Baltic states, in particular, have traditionally been nervous of the EU expanding its defence cooperation fearing the US will be pushed away. However, the election of Donald Trump to the White House has revealed the danger in the EU’s reliance on the US at a time when it appears to be winding down its global reach.