Mrs May comes in from the cold to win EU support against Russia
AT HER six previous meetings with EU leaders, Theresa May had cut an isolated figure as the bringer of unwanted problems in the name of Brexit. This time, however, the mood could not have been more different.
As the Prime Minister took her seat at the dinner table in Brussels’s Europa building, the eyes of 27 presidents and premiers were on her, and for the next four hours she was the fulcrum of a debate that would redefine the continent’s relationship with Russia.
By yesterday morning, 10 EU countries were considering the coordinated expulsion of Russian diplomats.
A European Council summit that had been scheduled to discuss the Brexit transition deal took on the atmosphere of a Cold War gathering.
As pan-fried scallops were served shortly after 8pm, Mrs May set out her argument that the use of Novichok nerve agent, coupled with Vladimir Putin’s record of political assassinations, left no doubt about the Kremlin’s culpability for the Salisbury attacks.
Then she played her trump card: British intelligence.
Mrs May discussed material gathered by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, and the findings from Porton Down. British experts have now isolated the precise type of Novichok used, and the likely location of the laboratory that made it, enabling Mrs May to tell the other leaders just how sure the UK is about Mr Putin’s involvement.
Her 10-minute address electrified the room. Emma- nuel Macron, the French president, and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany were among the first to voice their backing, followed by the heads of the Baltic states, who know more than anyone about Russian aggression.
They agreed with Mrs May’s assessment of Putin as a “long-term threat”.
Senior EU diplomatic sources said Mrs May’s measured approach had won leaders over. “Mrs May was at her very best,” the source said. “She didn’t overdo it. She very carefully laid out her case.”
Several EU leaders privately expressed renewed regret about Britain’s impending EU departure. One source said: “It was a reminder that the UK is one of the only strategic EU powers that Putin fears. It reminded everyone what the EU will be losing.”
The drumbeat for tougher EU action had begun on Tuesday when foreign ministers met in Brussels.
Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s vice president and former diplomat in Moscow; and Bulgaria’s representative, who recalled the assassination of Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident, with a poison-tipped umbrella in 1978, were among those aligning with Britain over the need for action.
The EU would only agree that “it takes extremely seriously” the UK’S finding that Russia was to blame. But Mrs May’s address changed all that.
Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, and Leo Varadkar, the Irish premier, took the lead in drafting new wording for the shared statement. Greece and Cyprus, two countries sympathetic to Russia, were the hardest to convince, but in the face of overwhelming opposition they, along with Italy, fell into line.
All 28 agreed it was “highly likely” the Kremlin was behind the poisonings with “no other plausible explanation”. The final statement said: “We stand in unqualified solidarity with the UK in the face of this grave challenge to our shared security.”
By midnight, the leaders were still discussing their response. Then came an unexpected bonus. The Commission’s legal service was asked to give advice on ordering Russia’s ambassador to the EU to Brussels. Out of that emerged the idea of recalling the EU’S ambassador to Moscow as a statement of intent.
The 28 leaders agreed the unprecedented move, which gave succour to those already contemplating the expulsion of Russian diplomats. Bartosz Cichocki, Poland’s deputy foreign minwith ister, told The Daily Telegraph his country was prepared to expel Russians if it encouraged others to take steps, too.
Hour by hour, the list of countries talking about expulsions grew. France, Estonia and Latvia joined Poland and Lithuania in discussing coordinated deportations, and were followed by the Netherlands, Croatia, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Denmark.
Germany, too, could soon follow.
potentially hundreds of suspected spies to be sent back to Moscow, the Government believes Russia has been taken aback by the response. “They will have spent weeks preparing their response before they carried out these attacks,” said one Whitehall source. “But the fact that they have now tried to spin 18 different versions of how the Skripals could have been poisoned by someone else shows that
they can’t find a narrative that is convincing anyone at all.”
As she left shortly after 2am local time yesterday, Mrs May said: “I welcome the fact that the Council agrees with the UK that it is highly likely that Russia was responsibler. This is about us standing together to uphold our values against the Russian threat.”
Last night, the Russian Ambassador wrote to Det Sgt Nick Bailey, who was among the first to attend the scene and suffered the effects of the nerve agent.
In the letter, which was published by the Russian Embassy, Alexander Yakovenko said: “Please be assured that Russia has nothing to do with this reckless incident and is ready to co-operate with the British authorities.”