BRUSSELS (AP) – Gender equality issues took center stage in Brussels on Wednesday, a day after Ursula von der Leyen, one of the EU’s most powerful executives, was treated as a second-class official during a visit to Ankara.
Von der Leyen – the President of the European Commission – and Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, visited Turkey on Tuesday for talks with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on EU-Turkey relations. After being led into a large hall for talks with Erdogan, TV footage showed that only two seats had been laid for the EU and the Turkish flags for the three leaders.
Michel and Erdogan took the chairs while Von der Leyen stood looking at both men and expressed her surprise with an “um” and a gesture of disappointment. Von der Leyen ended up sitting on a large beige sofa, away from her male counterparts.
According to an EU source, the meeting between the three leaders lasted more than two and a half hours.
“Most importantly, the president should have been sitting exactly the same way as the president of the European Council and the Turkish president,” said EU commission chief spokesman Eric Mamer, adding that von der Leyen was surprised by the arrangements.
“She decided to go ahead anyway and put the content above protocol, but nevertheless let me emphasize that the President expects the institution she represents to be treated with the required protocol, so she has asked her team to make all appropriate contacts. to ensure that such an incident does not occur in the future, ”said Mamer.
He added that Von der Leyen’s protocol team did not travel to Turkey with her due to the coronavirus pandemic.
There was no immediate comment from the Turkish Presidency or the European Council.
The diplomatic incident received a lot of comment on social media. European legislator Sophie in ‘t Veld posted photos of earlier meetings between Michel and Von der Leyen’s predecessors with Erdogan, with the trio of men sitting side by side on chairs.
“And no, it was no coincidence, it was deliberate”, writes In ‘t Veld on Twitter, wondering why Michel “keeps silent”.
“‘Ehm’ is the new term for ‘that’s not how the relationship between the EU and Turkey should be,’ said Sergey Lagodinsky, another MEP, using the hashtags #GiveHerASeat and #womensrights.”
Last month, Erdogan pulled Turkey out of a major European convention aimed at combating violence against women, which drew criticism from EU officials. The move was a blow to Turkey’s women’s rights movement, which says domestic violence and murders of women are on the rise.
Von der Leyen called on Erdogan to reverse his decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Treaty.
“Human rights issues are non-negotiable. We were very clear about that. We urge Turkey to reverse its decision as it is the first internationally binding instrument to combat violence against women and children, ”she said.
When asked whether the committee considered the incident specifically gender-related, Mamer said Von der Leyen traveled to Ankara as chair of an EU institution.
“Being male or female doesn’t change the fact that she should have been to the same protocol agreements as the two other participants,” Mamer said. “She seized the opportunity to specifically address the Istanbul Convention and women’s rights. I think the message sent was clear. “
Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this story.