After the EU firmly sided with May in the escalating conflict reminiscent of the Cold War and said it was "highly likely Russia is responsible" for the attack on Sergei Skripal, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said "in all likelihood, Russia was in connection with the nerve gas attack and there are no other explanations".
May won the backing of 27 other EU leaders at a summit on Thursday and the bloc called the attack a "grave challenge to our shared security."
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the EU envoy "is being recalled for consultations to Brussels."
The EU states said they would "coordinate on the consequences to be drawn in the light of the answers provided by the Russian authorities."
May was delighted with the support early Friday and the unanimity was a victory for May.
She had been striving at a summit in Brussels to persuade her EU colleagues to unite in condemning Moscow over the attack on Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for Britain, and his daughter, Yulia. Russia strongly denies responsibility and has slammed Britain's investigation,Associated Press reports.
"We discussed two main topics tonight. We have been discussing it (ex Russian spy poisoning in UK) for a long time but then we said it in a very unified way that, in all likelihood, Russia was in connection with the nerve gas attack and there are no other explanations. This has been seen by all member states as well, we will continue to look now that the British have handed over the data to the chemical weapons organisation. We are waiting for the unified results here. We are determined to respond in a uniformed way through this language (referring to the statement) but also possibly through further measures and so this was a very good, very important discussion."
