The fact that Charles Michel accepted that there were just two chairs and not three, caused further criticism among EU politicians.[11] Michel defended himself mentioning he worried that had he acted otherwise, the diplomatic relations between the EU and Turkey would have been strained further and preparations met for the meeting would have been destroyed.[11] He further mentioned that a possible cause of the distressing situation was that Turkey had strictly adhered to the diplomatic protocol[2][12] which rates the head of the EU council above the head of the EU commission.[4][13] Eric Mamer, the chief spokesperson for the EU Commission confirmed that Von der Leyen was surprised by the situation but preferred to focus on the matter of the meeting and not on the form of the protocol.[14] The commission demanded that a Modus Vivendi shall be crafted to prevent such incidents in the future.[13][15]