Britain is to team up with France, Germany and other willing nations to launch an initiative to co-ordinate European military deployments outside the framework of the European Union.

Nine nations, including Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia, Spain and Portugal, have signed up to the so-called European Intervention Initiative (EII) - a coalition of willing states prepared to react to crises near Europe's borders without help from NATO or the United States.

Speaking to Le Figaro newspaper on Sunday, Florence Parly, France's defence minister, said: "European defence needs a common strategic culture."

The initiative involves "joint planning work on crisis scenarios that could potentially threaten European security", a defence ministry source said, including natural disasters, intervention in a crisis or evacuation of nationals.

The idea for EII was first mooted by French president Emmanuel Macron in a speech at the Sorbonne last September, and is seen by eurosceptics as an embryo for some kind of European armed force.