European diplomats on Thursday pointed out that Turkey has no responsibility for the protocol arrangement of Tuesday's meeting between the EU officials and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as it took place in line with EU protocol requirements, Eurasia Diary reports citing Anadolu Agency. 

Jean-Claude Juncker, former head of the EU Commission, evaluated the criticism in the European press over the seat arrangement of the Tuesday meeting in the capital Ankara in which Charles Michel, head of the EU Council, sat down next to Erdogan in a separate chair while Ursula von der Leyen, head of the EU Commission was sat down a nearby couch.

"When I was traveling with [Donald] Tusk or [Herman] Van Rompuy, I always respected that protocol order ... Normally I had a chair next to the chair of the president of the Council, but sometimes it happened that I was sitting on a sofa," Juncker told POLITICO in a phone interview.

Saying that the protocol for Leyen should be different, he also noted that the president of the council is number one, and the president of the Commission is number two as part of the protocol arrangements.

Also, mentioning the issue and reactions from the EU press, Liberation, the French daily, said that the scene shown as misogynistic by many social media users respects the European protocol.

It said visuals should not be relied on as in that case, Turkey applied the EU protocol