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Former European Council President Charles Michel sharply criticized European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday after she grouped Türkiye with Russia and China as influences Europe must resist.
He called Türkiye "a core NATO ally, a key migration partner, an energy corridor, a major defence actor on Europe's flank and a serious regional power."
Michel warned that "Europe doesn't get stronger by applying double standards or simplifying reality."
Michel posted directly to von der Leyen on X, listing Türkiye's strategic attributes.
"Türkiye is: a core NATO ally, a key migration partner, an energy corridor, a major defense actor on Europe's flank, and a serious regional power. Europe doesn't get stronger by applying double standards or simplifying reality," Michel wrote.
The post came after von der Leyen said at the Die Zeit 80th anniversary event in Hamburg: "We must succeed in completing the European continent so that it is not influenced by Russia, Türkiye, or China. We must think bigger and more geopolitically."
Belgian MEP Marc Botenga of the Left Group in the European Parliament told Türkiye's state-run Anadolu Agency (AA): "This is both an untrue and a very strange statement."
He noted that Türkiye was not only a NATO member but was "still officially an EU candidate country" with multifaceted EU relations.
Botenga said the deeper problem was structural. "Ursula von der Leyen's statements serve to divide the world into 'us' and 'others.' It's as if there's a kind of 'purity test' and as if she wants to control the rest of the continent. But the continent is already united, the EU does not cover the entire European continent," he said.
He warned that dividing the world as "if you agree with us you're a friend, if not you're an enemy" was "extremely dangerous."
"It's an extremely weird statement, because it's also not true," he added.
"Türkiye still is formally a member a candidate member state and so but more globally, I think the problem with Ursula von der Leyen's comments are that she's dividing the world between us and others, as if there's some kind of purity test, as if she wants to conquer the rest of the continent," Botenga said.
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Fellow Belgian MEP Rudi Kennes said von der Leyen's remarks reflected current global dynamics, linking them to broader Western strategic postures.
"They're (Europe) losing power. They're knowing it. They cannot play the sheriff in the world anymore, because now we have a multiple world, not just them as so-called sheriff of the world. And this is just desperate what they are doing now," he noted.
He added that the world was becoming multipolar and that Europe "cannot take on the role of world police" and was therefore "declaring enemies" out of countries like Russia, Iran and China.
"I think the comment she made is also contributing to what's actually happening today in the world, and that is all support from all these countries, like the US and all these complicit states, to the cult project Greater Israel," he added.
"The only thing today they can do these European leaders, is hopefully that big brother on the other side of the ocean will be able to stay in power. But they're losing," Kennes added.
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