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 governors, was treated like a second-rate official during a visit to Ankara.
Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Charles Michel, head of the European Council, visited Turkey on Tuesday for talks with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, focusing on EU-Turkey relations. After being led into a large room for talks with Erdogan, TV footage showed that only two seats had been laid in front of the EU and the Turkish flags for the three leaders.
Michel and Erdogan take the chairs as von der Leyen looks at both men, surprising her with an ‘ehm’ and a gesture of disappointment. Von der Leyen finally sits on a large beige couch, away from her male counterparts.
According to an EU source, the meeting between the three leaders lasted more than two hours and a half.
“The most important thing is that the president had to sit in exactly the same way as the president of the European Council and the Turkish president,” said Eric Mamer, spokesman for the European Commission, adding that Von der Leyen was surprised by the arrangements.
‘She has decided to continue with the priority of the drug over the protocol, but let me emphasize that the president expects the institution she represents to be treated with the required protocol, and so she asked her team to take appropriate contacts to ensure that such an incident does not occur in the future, ‘Mamer said.
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 was widely reported on social media. European lawmaker Sophie in ‘t Veld posted photos of previous meetings between Michel and Von der Leyen’s predecessors with Erdogan, with the trio of men sitting in chairs next to each other.
“And no, it was no coincidence, it was intentional,” ‘t Veld wrote on Twitter, asking why Michel remained “quiet.”
“‘Ehm’ is the new term for ‘this is not how EU-Turkey relations should be’, said Sergey Lagodinsky, another Member of the European Parliament, using the hashtags #GiveHerASeat and #womensrights.”
Last month, Erdogan withdrew Turkey from a major European convention aimed at combating violence against women, which has drawn criticism from EU officials. The move was a blow to Turkey’s women’s rights movement, which says domestic violence and killings of women are on the rise.
Von der Leyen called for Erdogan to reverse his decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention.
‘Human rights issues are non-negotiable. We were very clear about it. “We call on Turkey to reverse its decision, as it is the first internationally binding tool to combat violence against women and children,” she said.
Asked whether the commission considered the incident specifically gender-related, Mamer said Von der Leyen had traveled to Ankara as president of an EU institution.
“Being a man or a woman does not change the fact that she had to sit according to the same protocol arrangements as the other two participants,” Mamer said. “She seized the opportunity to address specifically the Istanbul Convention and Women’s Rights. I believe the message sent was clear. ‘
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Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this story.