display

In the "SofaGate" affair about the protocol treatment of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her visit to Turkey, the mutual accusations continue.

The EU Council published a note on Thursday describing the planning of the meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.

Accordingly, the EU advance delegation had no access to the room in which the later conversation with von der Leyen and EU Council President Charles Michel took place.

"There was a brief tour of the premises," says the memo.

“Too Close” to the President's Office?

display

The conference room was "not accessible despite our requests" because it was "considered too close to President Erdogan's office".

Otherwise, the EU side would have suggested that von der Leyen should be given an armchair "out of courtesy" like Michel and no space on a sofa.

Von der Leyen and Michel traveled to Ankara on Tuesday to explore ways of improving relations between the European Union and Turkey.

At the meeting with Erdogan in the Turkish presidential palace, a large chair was reserved for Michel next to the Turkish head of state.

The pictures, which were taken a little later, have since caused a sensation under the catchphrase “Sofagate”.

In a video distributed by the EU you can see how the head of the commission initially stops and reacts with an "Um" when Erdogan and Michel sit down in the armchairs.

Later she can be seen on a sofa on the left at a considerable distance.

There she sat across from Foreign Minister Cavusoglu, who also took part in the conversation.

display

The new information about the preparation of the meeting also shows how hard the wrestling has already been going on behind the scenes.

According to the report, the EU representatives then became active in the dining room, to which they were granted access at short notice.

There, at her request, “the three chairs for the VIPs were adjusted in size in favor of the Commission President”.

In addition, it was EU Council President Michel who suggested that von der Leyen should be included in the official photo of the meeting.

With regard to the ranking of the two presidents, the memo refers to the EU treaty and an agreement between the heads of protocol of the institutions.

Accordingly, "the protocol for third countries clearly distinguishes between the status of the head of state, which the President of the European Council holds, and the status of the head of government, which the President of the Commission holds".

This could "be the cause of the problem".

"The President was clearly surprised"

Members of the European Parliament had sharply criticized the incident in the past few days.

“Sofagate” then also became a trend in social networks.

A spokesman for the EU Commission made it clear on Wednesday that, from their point of view, von der Leyen should have been placed on an equal footing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and EU Council President Charles Michel.

"The president was clearly surprised," he said.

But she preferred to talk about substantive issues.

display

Michel explained the incident with the "strict interpretation of the protocol rules by the Turkish services".

He wrote on his Facebook page that this led to a “degraded treatment” of the head of the commission.

The "regrettable character" of the treatment was clear to him.

Both would then have decided "not to aggravate it by a public incident" and to put the content of the talks in the foreground.

For its part, the Turkish government blamed the EU for the incident.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu said the seating arrangement was set “in accordance with the EU proposal”.

He described the criticism of Turkey as "unfair".

The meeting was held according to international standards and “Turkish hospitality”.

Former Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker pointed out that he, too, was sometimes treated as "number two" when traveling abroad.

"It was clear to everyone that from a protocol point of view, the President of the Council is number one," he told the online magazine "Politico".

"I usually had a chair next to the President's chair, but sometimes I sat on a sofa."

The leader of the social democratic group in the European Parliament, Iratxe García Pérez, emphasized that Turkey has only just withdrawn from the Istanbul Convention for the Protection of Women.

"And now they leave the President of the European Commission without a place on an official visit," she wrote on Twitter.

That is "shameful".

“Um” is the new term for “This is not how the EU-Turkey relationship should be,” wrote the Green MP Sergey Lagodinsky on Twitter.

For the liberal Sophie in 't Veld this was “no accident, it was on purpose”.

She also asked why Michel had not protested the treatment of his colleague von der Leyen.

The Green Bundestag member Cem Özdemir commented: “Such signs are set by authoritarian oppressors & machos like #Putin, #Erdogan & Co deliberately.

(...) If you can put up with it, you don't have to.

In any case, you don't get respect from men like that! "

After all, the content was about women's rights

Von der Leyen's spokesman stressed on Wednesday that incidents like the one in the presidential palace in Ankara should not be repeated. Precautions will now be taken for this. The commission also pointed out that von der Leyen had used the meeting with Erdogan to hold a long and very open discussion with him about women's rights and Turkey's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on the Protection of Women and Children from Violence .