Thread by @DaveKeating

An EC spokesman responds to #Chairgate, explaining protocol department isn't travelling with leaders now because of Covid and didn't see arrangement beforehand.

"The Commission president was clearly surprised, that's something you can see from the video"

"The protocol level of our president is exactly the same as that of the president of the European Council," he says.

"The president should have been seated in exactly the same manner as the Council and Turkish presidents" as she is normally treated in foreign visits.

However "even though she was surprised she preferred to give priority on protocol matters in a way that EU citizens would have expected her to conduct herself."

"I’m sure this was the right way of approaching this."

Asked whether @vonderleyen is letting Erdogan (and Michel) off the hook here, he says "Not making an issue out of something in public is not the same thing as saying it has no importance".

He says he's not aware of any effort by the Turks to apologise.

Spokesman asked whether this diplomatic incident made Von Der Leyen feel she was personally experiencing the current treatment of women in #Turkey (at the heart of conflict over Erdogan's withdrawal from #IstanbulConvention).

"Obviously this sharpened her focus on the issue"

We've now heard from the Commission, but 24 hours into #ChairGate we still haven't had any response from the
@EUCouncil on why President Michel hasn't (literally or figuratively) taken a stand on this.

They haven't even acknowledged what happened.