France, Germany drop plans for Russia summit after EU outcry

European Union leaders failed to agree on a proposal byFranceandGermanyto hold asummitsoon withRussian President Vladimir PutinafterPoland and Baltic countries said it would send the wrong message as East-West ties deteriorate.

AfterU.S. President Joe Biden metRussian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva on June 16, French President Emmanuel Macron said the firstEUsummitwith Putin since January 2014 would be "a dialogue to defend our interests". He insisted theEUcould not only be reactive in its diplomacy withRussia.

Butafterlate-night talks at their meeting in Brussels, the 27EUleaders failed to reach an agreement, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said early on Friday.

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"It was a very comprehensive discussion and not an easy one," she told reporters. "There was no agreement today on an immediate leaders' meeting," she said.

EUsummits withRussiaendedafterMoscow annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March 2014 and the West imposed sanctions.

While Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said he supported the Franco-German proposal, many other leaders were opposed.

"It was a common position of many leaders" not to change the stance onRussia, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda saidafterthe meeting broke up. He earlier said the idea was like "trying to engage the bear to keep a pot of honey safe".

Latvia's Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said theEUrisked rewardingRussiawith asummiteven though diplomacy has failed to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine withRussian-backed separatists.

Instead,EUleaders fell back to a familiar position of warning of more sanctions on Moscow if it continued what theEUsays is aRussian policy of disinformation, cyber and covert attacks and interference to try to divide the bloc.

Russiadenies any wrongdoing.

In asummitstatement, leaders called on theEuropean Commission and theEU's top diplomat Josep Borrell "to present options for additional restrictive measures, including economic sanctions" againstRussia.

TheEUhas sanctions on theRussian energy, financial and arms sectors and individual sanctions onRussians accused of human rights abuses and for using banned chemical weapons.

Diplomats say further sanctions could targetRussian money laundering or powerful oligarchs suspected of serious corruption abroad, as non-EUmember Britain did for the first time in April.

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Macron had tried in September 2019 to seek less frosty ties with Putin, without success, andGermany's outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel met Putin in Moscow in January 2020. Putin held a phone call withEuropean Council President Charles Michel, who chairsEUsummits, on June 7 this year.

FranceandGermanywant to be able to work withRussiaon combating climate change and to find ways to stabilise relations. Merkel said even without asummit: "Formats will be explored ... under which dialogues can be started."

ManyEUcountries are concerned that the Kremlin does not take the bloc seriously afterBorrell was publicly humiliated in February by the Kremlin.RussiaexpelledEUdiplomats during Borrell's visit to Moscow without warning.

Lithuania's Nauseda said: "We should be extremely cautious, this is not like the relationship ofRussiawith the United States".

WhileFranceis a nuclear power, theEUrelies on NATO for its territorial defence and takes decisions among 27 states, making it easier for the Kremlin to exploit divisions.

The Kremlin earlier welcomed the idea of asummit, saying both Brussels and Moscow needed dialogue, althoughRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he wanted more details.

On opposing sides in standoffs in Ukraine and Belarus, and at odds over human rights, theEUandRussiaaccuse each other of threatening security and stability from the Baltics to the Black Sea.

TheEUon Thursday imposed economic sanctions on Belarus, an ally ofRussiathat the Kremlin sees as a buffer state betweenRussiaand NATO.