Michel interrupted Von der Leyen at EUCO Press conference!!! The breakdown in relations has started to impinge on the workings of the EU, according to officials from both institutions. Though the two leaders appear alongside each other at post-summit press conferences, dialogue on day-to-day matters between the leaders and their close staff is all but nonexistent.
In the nearly three years since their tenures began, relations between Michel and von der Leyen have undergone an extraordinary breakdown, with staff from the two institutions discouraged from communicating and the two leaders locking each other out from meetings with foreign dignitaries.
The dysfunctional partnership is not only impacting the EU’s legislative and political agenda, which depends on a delicate inter-institutional balancing act. It’s also threatening to undermine the EU’s standing in the world.
According to officials, the relationship started off calmly. “There were some minor hiccups, but nothing unexpected,” said one EU official. In the early months, the Council’s secretariat scheduled a weekly afternoon meeting between Michel and von der Leyen every Monday.
But though the meetings soon petered out, things didn’t completely fall apart until April 2021 after the two leaders traveled to Turkey to meet with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Cameras caught von der Leyen’s shocked reaction when Michel quickly snagged the only chair next to the Turkish president, leaving her to sit on a couch across from the Turkish foreign minister. The Commission president, the first woman to occupy the position, later told the European Parliament she was “hurt” by the incident, blaming the snub on sexism.
Dubbed “Sofagate,” the incident went viral globally, with the mutual (if not always public) recriminations driving a downward spiral in relations that has only worsened since.
At the height of the uproar, it was widely reported that Michel added insult to injury by canceling a regular Monday lunch with von der Leyen due to a conflict with a visit by an African head of state. Today, Council officials say that von der Leyen had repeatedly canceled the lunch meetings, even before Sofagate. “In reality, it never took place weekly.” Commission officials say the two meet “almost” every week in various fora, though the scheduled one-to-one has been abandoned.
In contrast, von der Leyen and Michel’s predecessors Juncker and Tusk met most weeks and had a good working relationship, helped by their previous acquaintance as prime ministers and despite differences over policy issues like migration.
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