“The European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Security and Defence strongly condemns the 4 March attack against former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, using the military-grade nerve agent Novichok. We express the deepest solidarity and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the British Government and British people in taking the necessary actions against those responsible.
It is the first time since the Second World War that a military-grade nerve agent has been used in Europe for offensive purposes. There are many indications that the Russian Federation is responsible for this attack, as recently revealed by the UK Government’s assessment. This is yet another attempt by the Kremlin to test Western resolve and solidarity and a further strike against the rules based international order. We therefore welcome efforts to fully involve the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in order to bring its independent expertise to shed some further light on the investigation.
This latest attempt by Russia to question the European security architecture makes it perfectly clear that the EU and its Member States need to step up their cooperation on security, defence and intelligence matters as well as to maintain the closest ties with the UK following Brexit”.
