Ursula von der Leyen snubbed in chair gaffe at EU-Erdoğan talks

Awkward moment as EC chief consigned to sofa at meeting where women's rights was on agenda

Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission's first female president, was surprised" after being left without a chair during a meeting of the EU's two presidents and Turkey's leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, and has demanded such a snub is never repeated.

The German head of the commission was left visibly irritated at the start of the talks in Ankara with her two male counterparts, Erdoan and Charles Michel, the former Belgian prime minister who is president of the European council.