On Thursday 22 March, the European leaders said in the European Council conclusions that it was highly likely the Russian Federation is responsible for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, UK, believing that there is no other plausible explanation.
After an "intense" three-hour debate, a European source said that the heads of state and government of the EU went further than their foreign ministers and that an earlier draft of the conclusions in which Russia had the sole responsibility was not mentioned (see EUROPE 11984, 11986).
On arriving in Brussels, British Prime Minister Theresa May said that "the Russian threat does not respect borders" and that "the incident in Salisbury is a pattern of Russian aggression against Europe and its near neighbours from the Western Balkans to the Middle East".
In its conclusions, the European Council underlines its "unconditional solidarity" with the UK and its support for the ongoing investigation. "The use of chemical weapons, including the use of any toxic chemicals as weapons under any circumstances, is completely unacceptable, must be systematically and rigorously condemned and constitutes a security threat to us all", the European leaders stated.
According to the text agreed by the EU28, the "member states will coordinate on the consequences to be drawn in the light of the answers provided by the Russian authorities". "We are all considering putting measures in place that are identical to those taken by the UK, such as the expulsion of diplomats", Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite stated when she arrived at the European Council, adding that her country would take a decision on this "very soon".
According to a European source, the leaders decided to recall the EU's ambassador in Moscow, Markus Ederer, for consultations.
Belgium's Prime Minister Charles Michel meanwhile regretted the lack of a "permanent high-level channel for discussion with Russia to try and manage the disputes". "We speak a lot about Russia, but not with Russia", he said. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)