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After the "Sofagate" affair when EU leaders visited Ankara, EU Council President Charles Michel had a bad conscience.
"I make no secret of the fact that I haven't slept well at night since then because the scenes in my head keep playing out," Michel told the Handelsblatt and other European business media.
"If it were possible, I would go back and fix it."
When Michel and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the diplomatic scandal broke out.
A video shows how the head of the commission initially stops at the beginning of the meeting in the presidential office and reacts with an "Um" when Erdogan and Michel sit in two armchairs next to each other - a third armchair was not ready.
Von der Leyen had to take a seat on a sofa at a considerable distance.
The snub from the Leyens in front of the cameras had led to massive outrage in Brussels.
The Turkish government faces charges of misogyny.
But there was also criticism of Michel because he had not immediately protested against von der Leyen's treatment.
Conservatives and Social Democrats, the largest groups in the European Parliament, asked for a plenary session on the incident.
No armchair was planned for Ursula von der Leyen - she had to take a seat on the sofa
Source: AFP / -
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Michel justified himself again in the “Handelsblatt”.
"My fear was that if I had acted in any way, it would have triggered a much more serious incident," he said.
Already on Wednesday Michel had attested the “degraded treatment” of the Leyens in Ankara to be “unfortunate in character”.
The Turkish government rejected the criticism as "unfair" and, for its part, blamed the EU for the incident.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu said the seating arrangement was set “in accordance with the EU proposal”.