EU Summit: Theresa May, Macron and Merkel to hold three-way crisis meeting on Salisbury attack

UK hoping for EU condemnation of Russia after Sergei Skripal poisoning

Theresa May is to hold a three-way crisis meeting on the Salisbury nerve agent attack with the French and German premiers in the margins of a European summit on Thursday.

The Prime Minister is attending the European Council meeting in Brussels where she will brief the other 27 EU leaders on Brexit and the Salisbury nerve agent incident, as well as consider a response to rising US trade protectionism.

Arriving at the Europa building in the Belgian capital Ms May told reporters that Russia had “staged a brazen and reckless attack against the United Kingdom” by using the Novichok nerve agent.

“I'll be raising this issue with my counterparts today because it's clear that the Russian threat does not respect borders, and indeed the incident in Salisbury was part of a pattern of Russian aggression against Europe and its near neighbours, from the western Balkans to the Middle East,” she said.

Downing Street said the Prime Minister was set to meet the three premiers in the early evening before the 28 EU leaders sit down for dinner.

Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, said EU leaders would “express our strongest possible solidarity with the United Kingdom after the attack in Salisbury, as well as we have done with the foreign ministers on Monday”.

“The strongest political sign we can give is unity, unity, and unity: including in the moment when we move forward on negotiations on Brexit,” she said on the doorstep of the meeting.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini speaks at the summit (EAS)

“This doesn’t mean anything in terms of diminishing our solidarity, on the contrary we stand together.”

EU diplomats ahead of the summit said Britain was not pushing for new sanctions against Russia, but that the focus had instead been getting EU leaders to accept the UK position Russia was behind the attempted poisoning.

Investigations by military experts at the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down identified the nerve agent used against the Skripals as part of the Soviet-developed “Novichoks” group.

Independent experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are continuing work to verify the analysis in Salisbury and have been seen in areas visited by Mr Skripal and his daughter.

The results are expected to take a minimum of two weeks and police have not confirmed how the nerve agent was administered.

NHS England said a total of 38 people were treated for varying symptoms resulting from exposure to the substance, but only the Skripals and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey remain in hospital, with an unnamed person being seen as an outpatient.

A judge gave doctors permission to pass fresh blood samples from the victims to the OPCW on Thursday.

Mr Justice Williams made the ruling in the Court of Protection because the Skripals remain unconscious in intensive care, and are unable to give consent.

The judge ruled that the Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust could provide blood samples to the OPCW alongside copies of medical notes, saying the moves were in their best interest.

The Russian government has promised to cooperate with the OPCW but dismissed its conclusions that ally Bashar al-Assad killed civilians with sarin gas in Syria last year.

It denies any wrongdoing and claims it has destroyed all chemical weapons stockpiles and complied with the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian Ambassador to the UK, heightened tensions by accusing Britain of storing deadly Novichok itself in an extraordinary press conference.

The Prime Minister said Russia had provided “no credible explanation” on how the substance came to be used on the streets of Wiltshire and accused the state itself of culpability.

A meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday did not explicitly say Russia was responsible for the attack, and said only that the “European Union takes extremely seriously the UK Government’s assessment that it is highly likely that the Russian Federation is responsible”.

It is understood that UK diplomats have been pressing for national leaders to go further in their condemnation than foreign ministers did and explicitly point the blame at Russia.

Europe has so far presented a less-than-united front against Russia. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday caused a stir by congratulating Mr Putin on his re-election and wishing him “every success”, while there are reports that the foreign ministers’ meeting toned down the language criticising Russia at the behest of sceptical member states.