Bezoek Poetin aan Europese Top risico voor eenheid (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders will gather for a one day informal meeting in Finland on Friday in what is shaping up to be more a test of how they behave before Russian president Vladimir Putin than any substantive policy meeting.

Although Mr Putin is only going to be at the meeting in Lahti, southern Finland, for two hours - and only in the evening over dinner - his presence has cast a long shadow over the entire day's proceedings.

Worried that the EU will make a show of itself with various member states - such as Poland - getting ready to sling hard words at the Russian president, the Finnish EU presidency has taken matters firmly in hand.

At the lunch meeting - without Mr Putin - member states will be invited to air any gripes they may have about Moscow, but Finland will speak on behalf of the EU at dinner, presenting a sanitised version of the complaints and questions national governments have.

On top of this, an EU diplomat told EUobserver that the Finnish presidency is preparing bullet points for the 25 leaders on what they should and should not say to journalists in their press conferences after the meeting.

The stage-managed approach is a sign of the difficulty the bloc has in its relations with the powerful and unpredictable neighbour.

Politkovskaya murder

One factor that strongly colours bilateral ties is the bloc's dependency on Russia for its energy supply - around 25 percent - giving relations a necessarily pragmatic foundation, which Mr Putin has thoroughly exploited in the past.

The tension between wanting to take the moral high ground on issues such as Russia's poor human rights record and securing practical energy concerns is set to come to the fore in the summit's approach to the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovksaya.

A fierce Kremlin critic and a reporter on the Chechyna conflict, she was shot dead earlier this month in a contract killing which investigators have said was probably linked to her journalistic work.

Since the killing, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso i has promised the EU is "going to be frank with Russia" on the issue, while Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanan said he would "of course raise_the murder of the journalist Anna Politovskaya at the beginning of the dinner. From the EU side we have the demand to make a full investigation into the murder."

But EU differences on how to handle human rights issues with its giant neighbour over already became apparent this week when France, Greece and Luxembourg pushed the bloc to tone down criticism of Moscow's recent sanctions against Georgia ahead of Friday's summit.

Energy and innovation

Meanwhile, energy and innovation are the main issues on the official agenda for the meeting in the modestly-sized, lakeside Finnish town.

On the energy issue, the EU is seeking better treatment for its energy companies in Russia after a series of high-level spats involving Shell and Total. It also wants Russia to open up its pipeline network.

But with high energy demand matched by high prices, Moscow so far has not felt any need to make concessions toward the Europeans, something recently acknowledged by the Finnish presidency.

Meanwhile, the European Commission is going push its innovation agenda with issues such as taxation, bankruptcy legislation, intellectual property rights and research and development included in its strategy.

The plan for a European Institute of Technology is also set to be raised - a pet project of Mr Barroso, the institute has yet to find much favour among national capitals.

Spain to raise immigration

Finally, Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is to raise Europe's pressing immigration problem with his EU counterparts.

Spain, along with Italy and Malta, have seen a huge surge in immigrants from Africa trying to make it to the EU in recent months, but the rest of the member states have been reluctant to help out.

The last time Spain raised the issue - at foreign minister level in September - it was chastised for encouraging immigration by granting an amnesty to thousands of illegal workers already in the country.