Sanna Marin said the time for the summit has not yet come
The European Union may in the future return to discussing a proposal by France and Germany to hold a meeting between the EU and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said this on Friday before the second day of the community summit in Brussels.
“I think it is very possible that we will come back to this issue later”, – she said. She said the initiative by France and Germany was “necessary”, – “but the time [for the summit] has not yet come”.
The leaders of the 27 EU countries, in a discussion on Russia that dragged on until late Friday night, failed to agree on a proposal by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron for an EU-Russia summit.
In return, according to the summit’s final statement, the EU heads of state and government instructed the EU foreign service, led by Josep Borrell, to explore opportunities for dialogue with Russia on selected topics of interest to the EU, as well as to explore options for new sanctions against Russia, including economic ones, to counter possible future Russian activities they see as damaging.
On the eve of the summit, the British Financial Times newspaper, citing diplomatic sources, reported that Merkel made a proposal to invite Putin to a meeting with EU leaders. According to the newspaper, the initiative was supported by Macron.