Von der Leyen 'hurt' over treatment at summit meeting in Turkey

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has delivered a stunning denunciation of her treatment during a summit meeting in Turkey where she was denied a chair when meeting President Erdogan alongside European Council President Charles Michel.

Ms von der Leyen said she felt "hurt" and "alone" and could reach no other conclusion than that the incident occurred because she was a woman.

In images at the time which went viral, President von der Leyen was left standing awkwardly when the only two chairs set up for a photo opportunity were swiftly taken by President Erdogan and President Michel.

In a statement to the European Parliament, she said: "I am the first woman to be president of the European Commission. I am the President of the European Commission. This is how I expected to be treated when visiting Turkey two weeks ago, like a Commission President. But I was not.

"I cannot find any justification for how I was treated in any European Treaties, so I have to conclude that it happened because I am a woman. Would this have happened if I had worn a suit and a tie?

"In pictures of previous meetings I did not see any shortage of chairs but then again I did not see any pictures of women neither," she told the chamber.

The protocol incident took place on 7 April during a meeting in Ankara between the presidents of the Commission and Council, and the Turkish president.

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Addressing female MEPs directly, President von der Leyen said: "You know exactly how I felt. I felt hurt, and I felt alone, as a woman and a European.

"It is not about seating arrangements or protocol. This goes to the core of who we are. This goes to the values our Union stands for, and this shows how far we still have to go to before women are treated as equals, always and everywhere."

President von der Leyen acknowledged that she was in a privileged position and could raise her voice as the leader of what she described as a "highly respected" institution.

"As a leader I can speak up and make myself heard. But what about the millions of women who can not? Women who are hurt every day in every corner of our planet, who do not have the power or cannot speak up," she said.

She castigated Turkey for withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention, a binding treaty agreed by the Council of Europe, which combats violence against women and children.

President von der Leyen said it was a "terrible signal" that Turkey, a founding member of the 47-member human rights organisation, was withdrawing from the Treaty, which President Erdogan announced in March.

"This is the first internationally binding instrument to take a broad approach to combating violence against women and children. The convention prohibits psychological violence, sexual harassment and stalking and it outlaws domestic violence," she said.

She also said a number of EU member states still had not ratified the Convention and others were thinking of withdrawing. "This is not acceptable. Any kind of violence against women and children is a crime. We must call it a crime and it must be punished as such," she said.

"To be credible we must not only criticise others, to be credible we also have to act at home," she added.

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Although the majority of EU member states have ratified the Istanbul Convention, the EU as a whole is still not party to it because six member states - Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Hungary - have yet to ratify it.

Ireland ratified the treaty in March 2019, and it entered into force in July 2019.

Fine Gael MEP Frances Fitzgerald told the European Parliament: "Women across Europe and around the world, watched the scene from Turkey with shock and indeed dismay and that all too familiar feeling of being side-lined and not treated equally.

"It is not an exaggeration to say what happened in Turkey is a denigration of all women.

"The relationship with Turkey must be grounded in values."