Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoglu said the agenda complied with the demands of the protocol staff of European officials, world agencies wrote. However, the European Council’s Protocol Department said today that it did not have access to the room where the meeting took place.
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The head of Turkish diplomacy called the criticism of the meeting of EU officials with President Erdogan unfair. According to him, the staff of the Turkish Protocol Department met the requirements of their EU counterparts. “In other words, this order was established as recommended by the European Union,” the minister said.
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“If we visited the room in advance, we would suggest that the hosts kindly replace the sofa with another chair for the chair of the commission,” the protocol department said in a letter, claiming it had no access to the room before the meeting.
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European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said on Wednesday that von der Leyen was surprised by the deployment of statesmen and that the European Commission’s delegation had not been informed in advance. According to him, the chairwoman continued the meeting because she “prefers content to protocol”.
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Footage from Tuesday’s meeting in Ankara has been criticized by many European politicians. “I am very sorry for the humiliation that President von der Leyen had to experience,” said Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi today. According to him, Erdogan belongs to a group of dictators with whom we need to maintain relations. , “he added.
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Three major clubs in the European Parliament – the People’s Party, the Socialists and the Greens – announced today that they would want Michel and von der Leyen to report on what is happening in Ankara before the plenary. They want to include the point at the meeting that will take place at the end of April.
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The head of the largest human faction in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, said that the images showed the disunity of the institutions of the European Union. Iratxe García, chairwoman of the second largest club of socialists and democrats, pointed out that Turkey had recently withdrawn from the Istanbul Treaty. According to other politicians, the meeting demonstrated Erdogan’s contemptuous attitude towards women. Michel was also criticized for not defending his colleague in front of Erdogan.
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However, the highest EU bodies also differ in their assessment of the situation. EC spokesman Mamer said the EC president had the same diplomatic status as the President of the European Council. However, the representatives of this institution do not agree with this and point out that according to the Lisbon Treaty, it is the President of the European Council who represents the EU in negotiations abroad. According to Charles Michel, the organization of the meeting in Ankara thus reflected the strict interpretation of this principle by the Turkish Protocol. He also described the situation as deplorable because it overshadowed the goals achieved in the negotiations with the Turkish head of state.
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