Because of a "chair" ... the president of the European Commission is exposed to an embarrassing situation!
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was exposed to a very embarrassing situation in the Turkish capital, Ankara, when the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, sat in her seat next to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while she remained standing waiting for him to give her the chair in vain.
Von der Leyen expressed her annoyance, which Michel had not noticed at the time.
But the European Commission president was finally forced to sit on a far couch as the press snapped pictures of Michel and Erdogan with von der Leyen who was visibly upset.
The main topic of Michel and Von Der’s visit to Turkey was to discuss the future of the Refugee Convention.
This embarrassing situation coincided with a three-hour meeting with Erdogan on Tuesday, where one of the issues raised by European Union leaders was women's rights in light of Turkey's withdrawal from an agreement on gender-based violence.
A spokesperson for Von der Leyen explained the president's feelings on the issue of women's rights, noting that the incident "sharpened her focus" on the issue of equal rights during the discussions that followed. He said, "It is clear that the Chairperson was surprised and this is something you can see from the video .. The protocol level of our president is exactly the same as that of the president of the European Council. "
He added: "Our president is a member of the European Council in itself, and she usually goes to foreign countries, and is treated in the same way as the president of the European Council. The president expects that the institution she represents will be dealt with according to the required protocol, and therefore she asked her team." Take all appropriate communications to ensure that such an accident does not occur in the future.
The Spokesman also indicated that the Chairperson of the Commission took a deliberate decision to continue the meeting despite the insult.
The spokesman added that "the president's assertion was clear that she did not withdraw from the meeting, participated in the meeting and played her full role."
"First they withdrew from the Istanbul Agreement and now they leave the President of the European Commission without a seat on an official visit. It is shameful," Spain's European Parliament member, Eratcci García Perez, who leads the Socialist and Democratic Group in the European Parliament, tweeted.
Former European Union Commissioner Violetta Polk tweeted, "What a diplomatic failure".
Neither von der nor Michel spoke about the diplomatic slip at the press conference that followed the meeting.
She said, "We came to Turkey to give our relationship a new impetus and in this regard we held the first interesting meeting with President Erdogan."
She added that Turkey sent a "wrong signal" by leaving the Convention on the Prevention of Violence against Women signed in 2011. She also said: "I am very concerned about the fact that Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, which concerns the protection of women and the protection of children from the threat of violence."
Follow our latest local and sports news, and the latest political and economic developments via Google news