The fact has led to the crisscrossing of allegations between Brussels and Ankara. The European Parliament called for a debate amid growing irritation.
A bitter controversy dubbed “SofaGate” shocked the European Union (EU) as a result of the disdain towards European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during the meeting with the Turkish President in Ankara.
In the video footage, you can see Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, host von der Leyen, head of the EU executive, and Charles Michel, president of the European Council, a body that represents the governments of the member states.
However, Erdogan and Michel then stood with their chairs in front of the respective flags, while Von der Leyen was left without a reserved seat or seat.
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In the recording, it can be clearly heard that Von der Leyen limited himself to highlighting the unusual situation with his simple throat clearing, while Erdogan and Michel comfortably occupied the main seats and left her in the room until they placed her on a sofa, in front of the Turkish Chancellor.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, did not have a reserved seat at the meeting and was later placed on a bench. Photo: AFP
The images caused immediate controversy in Brussels, although the European Commission pointed out that von der Leyen preferred to “prioritize the content” of the visit over the failure of the protocol.
Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said Wednesday that von der Leyen “must have sat in exactly the same way as the President of the European Council and the Turkish President”.
The decision to prioritize the content of the Erdogan hearing, Mamer said, “does not mean that (von der Leyen) has not attached importance to the episode.”
Therefore, the German official has already instructed her team to “establish the right contacts to ensure that such an incident does not happen again in the future,” he added.
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The confusing episode was renamed “SofaGate” and provoked angry reactions in Brussels, where it was interpreted as a disdain for a senior EU official and also the only woman in the meeting.
The questions
At the daily press conference, Mamer was repeatedly called into question whether the structure of the European Union itself places Michel hierarchically above von der Leyen.
The spokesman insisted that the two officials have the same protocol rank. On the other hand, the European Council is of the opinion that Michel has priority in the international protocol.
But beyond the controversy over the protocol scope of each, the episode opened the door to questions about sexism in the EU and even in the relationship between Brussels and Ankara.
Just before this visit last week, von der Leyen had publicly criticized Turkey for its withdrawal from a treaty to prevent violence against women and children.
“First they are withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention and now they are leaving the President of the European Commission without a seat on an official visit. Shameful, ”wrote the Spanish Iratxe García Pérez, head of the social democratic bloc in the European Parliament.
In turn, German MEP Sergey Lagodinsky wrote that the only response from von der Leyen (“Ahem”) is “the new term for” this is not how the EU-Turkey relationship should be “”.
Meanwhile, Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld denounced her criticism of Michel and wondered why the President of the European Council is “silent”, even after noting that his colleague was without a seat.
After a day of criticism of social networks and questions from journalists, Michel responded with a post on his Facebook page, assuring that he was not “unaware” of the situation, despite the impression the images give.
The former Belgian Prime Minister attributed the “unfortunate” scene to a “protocol error” on the Turkish side, assuring that both he and von der Leyen “chose not to make matters worse by making a public incident”.
Debate
The government of Turkey on Thursday defended the charges against it over what it considered a failure of the protocol during the visit to Ankara and held the EU accountable for what happened.
“The EU’s requests were respected. This means that seats were arranged according to their requests, ”Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a press conference.
“The charges against Turkey are unfair. Turkey is a deep-seated state and it is not the first time that we have received foreign dignitaries, ”he added.
For their part, the main political groups of the European Parliament this Thursday lamented the so-called “SofaGate” because of the image of divisions projected by the European Union’s top leaders during their recent visit to Turkey, and called a hearing to discuss the incident.
Manfred Weber, MEP, leader of the conservative majority bloc in Parliament, called for a meeting of the European Parliament with the two leaders, as the visit “translated into a symbol of division”.
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That visit “should have been a message of determination and unity from Europeans regarding Turkey,” said Weber, adding that “we expect more from European foreign policy.”
Similarly, Spanish MEP Iratxe García, head of the parliamentary bloc of socialists and democrats, asked this Thursday to summon Michel and Von der Leyen to a session of Parliament to “clarify what happened and (discuss) how the European settings can be respected “. .
Michel and Von der Leyen’s visit to Ankara was intended to open a door to an improvement in EU-Turkey relations, which were violently shaken by the ongoing crises in 2020.