Sofagate was once unhealthy, however it will had been worse.
Turkey nearly downgraded Ecu Fee President Ursula von der Leyen’s standing to an insignificant aide to Ecu Council President Charles Michel all over a running lunch in Ankara on Tuesday, ahead of a last-minute intervention from the EU facet stored the day, Brussels Playbook reported Friday.
The brand new main points emerged amid a popular backlash to the Sofagate affair, by which Michel took a seat subsequent to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan all over a photo-op, whilst von der Leyen was once awkwardly relegated to a settee.
In keeping with contributors of the Ecu delegations, a running lunch the leaders held that day nearly become every other diplomatic standing snafu. Forward of the lunch, the Turkish hosts arrange two tall chairs — one for each and every facet — with backrests “about two times as prime as the ones of the others,” as one particular person conversant in the occasions mentioned.
Along those have been 8 normal-sized chairs — 4 apiece. The EU’s tall chair was once reserved for Michel, the delegation chief, whilst the 4 common chairs have been intended for his aides: his outgoing and incoming diplomatic advisers, the pinnacle of the EU delegation in Turkey, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut — and von der Leyen herself. On Erdoğan’s facet, there have been 4 advisers however no counterpart for the Fee president, no longer even the overseas minister.
Two flags — one Turkish, one EU — have been positioned by way of the tall chairs.
That was once the setup till a member of the EU delegation intervened — simply ahead of the lunch began and the primary feminine Fee president was once relegated to the standing of Michel’s note-taker.
Von der Leyen’s new diplomatic adviser, Fernando Andresen Guimaraes, elbowed in, arguing he was once wanted within the room as he was once sporting his boss’s bag and he or she would wish it all over the running lunch. He recommended the hosts to fetch every other tall chair, and so as to add an ordinary one for him so von der Leyen would even have an aide by way of her facet. Each requests have been fulfilled, consistent with EU delegation contributors, with out a resistance. Andresen Guimaraes then positioned the flag between the 2 EU presidential seats.
You’ve were given to be in it to win it
But in an interior file on Sofagate, dated April 7 and shared with newshounds, the Council’s protocol leader Dominique Marro (who was once no longer a part of the Ankara delegation) looked as if it would declare his group had, actually, come to the Fee president’s rescue.
Within the lunchroom, “we had the chair sizes for the 3 VIPs restored in favour to l. a. Présidente,” he wrote, with the “we” reputedly a connection with Council officers.
Or was once it? A Council reliable advised Playbook the “we” within the observe referred to the “EU facet,” and the file was once no longer “incriminating nor except anyone.” Marro, within the Council observe, indexed a couple of extra issues they might have preferred completed on von der Leyen’s behalf, together with suggesting “to our hosts to interchange the settee with two chairs, as a courtesy to the President of the Fee.” Those tips, alternatively, have been by no means made.
The Fee’s personal protocol provider, “which is most often answerable for the missions of the President of the Fee, was once absent,” the Council observe mentioned pointedly.
And Turkey, it added, interpreted the diplomatic protocol too strictly. Technically, the Council president ranks above the Fee president, however in diplomatic follow, the 2 are most often handled similarly.
“The protocol of 3rd nations, basically, makes a transparent difference between the standing of Head of State, known to the President of the Ecu Council, and that of Top Minister, which is known to the President of the Fee, which may well be on the foundation of the trouble,” the Council file mentioned, once more blaming the hosts for the placement, as Michel himself did.
Ankara stumbles right into a Brussels energy play
Turkey’s Overseas Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who ended up sitting on every other sofa reverse von der Leyen all over the Sofagate assembly, on Thursday driven again towards assertions that Turkey had misinterpret the diplomatic protocol, insisting it wasn’t Ankara’s fault von der Leyen was once mistreated.
“Within the protocol, the calls for of the EU celebration had been met right here. This type of seating association has been organized upon the tips of the EU,” Çavuşoğlu mentioned at a press convention on Thursday, calling the accusations towards Turkey “unfair” and including that protocol officers “meet and talk about the association ahead of each and every talk over with.”
Alas, the EU protocol group Çavuşoğlu referred to was once the Ecu Council squad, whose protocol leader mentioned in its file that whilst “the Council’s protocol provider was once provide” at a preparatory assembly on Monday, it was once the one player from the EU facet. The Fee mentioned that because of coronavirus restrictions, it had no longer despatched its personal advance group, assuming von der Leyen’s pursuits could be revered.
Including to the confusion was once an obvious disconnect between the Council group and the native EU delegation in Turkey. The native delegation, an EU diplomat mentioned, was once “sidelined within the arrangements” after Michel’s other folks arrived. That’s the impact the EU embassy itself shared.
“We now have insisted with the Turkish facet that the Delegation must be the one touch level for all verbal exchange and have been at all times transparent in our verbal exchange to them in regards to the want for equivalent remedy of each presidents and their delegations,” mentioned Meyer-Landrut in an April 6 cable to his awesome in Brussels, and noticed by way of Playbook. However the Council “despatched a sophisticated group together with a Protocol officer who established a right away touch with the Turkish Protocol thus complicating efficient verbal exchange and coordination with the Turkish facet,” he wrote.
And when Turkish and EU officers held a last assembly on Monday to move over protocol and safety at Erdoğan’s presidential palace, they weren’t in a position to look the important thing rooms.
“A temporary excursion of the premises happened however the assembly and lunchrooms weren’t obtainable,” the Council file mentioned. Meyer-Landrut mentioned the similar in his cable.
Spherical 3?
Most often, von der Leyen and Michel may just talk about this kind of snafu at their weekly tête-à-tête, scheduled for each Monday. However the Council leader canceled their upcoming assembly with out specifying why, Fee officers mentioned.
He’ll be receiving “a head of state,” mentioned a Council reliable — Macky Sall, the president of Senegal.
By Robin
