The forum in Lahti, near Helsinki, is an informal EU heads of state and government summit, with the Finnish EU Presidency leading debate on innovation and energy, with migration and Darfur thrown in for good measure.
However all eyes will be on the dinner with Putin, their first meeting since the bloc expanded to 25 members two years ago.
The meeting got off on a unharmonious note before it even started, with European Commission President Manuel Barroso warning that there could be a "discordant chorus" of EU views in Lahti.
Diplomats expressed fears that some EU member states would prefer to keep Putin happy rather than jeopardise national interests.
Others, including some of the ex-Soviet bloc states who joined the EU in 2004, would like to see a tougher line on Russia's human rights.
Amnesty International called on the EU leaders to tackle Putin on "the onslaught on freedom of expression and association in Russia".
"Energy issues are important but Europe will be doing no one a favour, least of all ordinary Russians, if this is allowed to override all others," the London-based rights group said.
Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said on Wednesday he sees no problem in talking about enhanced trade, market access and transparency on the one hand and human rights, Russia's treatment of Georgians and the murder of Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, on the other.
"To the EU, our policy is one package, there are positive economic questions and also human rights questions, there is no problem to discuss all these things together," he said.
The Russian ambassador to the European Union said Thursday that growing concerns in the EU about Moscow were overblown and insisted that Russia did not intend to use its energy resources for political leverage.
Some European concerns were "completely exaggerated", ambassador Vladimir Chizhov said on the plane from Brussels to Lahti, southern Finland.
"The EU has become a more important but also a more difficult partner," Chizhov stressed.
"For us it didn't become easier after the enlargement in 2004," when 10 mostly ex-Communist countries joined the EU.
Russia is the world's second biggest oil producer after Saudi Arabia and supplier of around a quarter of all natural gas consumed in the European Union.
Moscow's recent hard-nosed approach to foreign energy investors has shaken its European partners, who are eager for a more balanced energy co-operation with Moscow.
In particular, the Europeans are concerned about Russia's recent decision to develop the huge Shtokman gas field without foreign partners and threats to halt a project off Russia's Pacific coast run by Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell on environmental grounds.
Those incidents came after Russian giant Gazprom switched off the gas taps to Ukraine in January amid a price war, hitting some supplies to Europe and
awakening the EU to the power of energy as a foreign policy tool.
Putin has said he will guarantee and even increase Russian energy supplies to Europe, but that in return Russian firms must be given access to Europe's retail energy market.
European officials respond that Russia must therefore open up its own energy market to greater competition and foreign investment, and have criticised the monopoly of the gas market held by state-owned Gazprom.
The Lahti meeting comes ahead of a formal EU-Russia summit on November 24.
Separately on the agenda in Lahti is the issue of innovation, dear to Finland's heart, including calls for a Europe-wide patent system, plans for a European Institute of Technology and calls for more public-private research initiatives.
Migration and the ongoing problems in Darfur will also be discussed by the EU leaders prior to their dinner with Putin.
The Finnish summit takes place alongside a cabin crew strike by national carrier Finnair, which stranded up to 30,000 travellers on Thursday and threatened to cause more chaos on Friday.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2006