A lack of news on Greece's efforts to push through its economic reforms left markets treading water on Tuesday.
The FTSE 100 Index fell 4.2 points to 6784 as Athens submitted legislation to parliament demanded by creditors in order to start talks on a bailout package.
Greek premier Alexis Tsipras and his colleagues were attempting to push through the second set of measures by Wednesday evening.
Germany's DAX was nearly 18 points off and France's CAC-40 drifted 0.24 points.
Connor Campbell at Spreadex said: "Any news from Greece should spark some interest this afternoon, but for now the Eurozone indices are acting as if Tuesday’s trading is yet to start."
Back in London, economic figures failed to impress as a fall in public sector net borrowing in June came in smaller than expected.
Capital Economics said: "June’s poor borrowing figure means borrowing in the first three months of the fiscal year of £25.1bn was £31.3bn (20%) lower than last year.
"If this trend persists over the remaining nine months of the fiscal year, this year’s deficit would be £71.5bn, £2bn higher than the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast in the Summer Budget."
The prospect of an impending US rate rise left gold testing the $1100 level again. US light crude was also hovering just over $50 a barrel.
In equities, white goods retailer AO World (LON:AO.) bounced 10.3p to 130p after reporting a sales pick-up this month. Some dealers said the price could reach 185p.
Telecoms group Cable & Wireless Communications (LON:CWC) reversed 0.4p to 68.65p as it reported flat first quarter mobile revenue versus the same time last year.
Royal Mail dropped 1.5p to 510p as it blamed lower letter volumes for flat revenue despite an upturn in parcel business.
Imperial Leather soap maker PZ Cussons (LON:PZC) lost 7p to 353p as it said currency volatility had affected results despite strong performances by washing and beauty products.
ECR Minerals (LON:ECR) jumped 0.01p to 0.07p after further positive results from trenching and test pitting at the Itogon gold project in the northern Philippines.
Enterprise services and marketplace provider Blur (LON:BLUR) advanced 6p to 30.5p as buyers and service providers rose 30% at the end of the first half.
Spread-betting firm IG (LON:IGG) backtracked 41p to 766p after revealing a profit hit from Switzerland's decision in January to remove the ceiling on the Swiss franc relative to the euro. It also said its chief executive was retiring.