The furious spat erupted when MEP Maria João Rodrigues, a vice-chairwoman of the S&D group, tweeted that the pair were snubbing the meeting. But it later emerged Mr Tusk had flown to the Polish port city of Gdansk to join thousands of mourners marking the death of mayor Paweł Adamowicz who was fatally stabbing in front of crowds during a charity event. And then Mr Juncker’s spokesman Margaritis Schinas pointed out his boss was always going to be in the Strasbourg chamber and had no intention of skipping the debate.
Mr Schinas tweeted: “With all due respect this is not true. @JunckerEU takes his institutional commitments seriously and was scheduled to attend 3 #EPlenary debates as you can see from his calendar – including on December #EUCO conclusions.”
A red-faced Mrs Rodrigues was forced to delete her erroneous tweet and later apologised to Mr Juncker’s team for the fuss.
MEPs have arrived in Strasbourg for their plenary session but most are more interested in events in London where MPs will later cast their “meaningful vote” on Theresa May’ Brexit deal.
The EU debate was to also not specifically Brexit but to discuss the conclusions from the December European Council summit.
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Ryszard Czarnecki, a conservative Polish MEP, told EUobserver.com: “It is one of the most important political decisions this year – not only in Europe, but in the world.”
Benedek Javor, a Hungarian MEP from the Greens group, said: “Of course everybody follows the developments.”
Mr Javor is among the 100 MEPs who signed an open letter calling on British voters to reconsider leaving the EU.
The letter said: ”Any British decision to remain in the EU would be warmly welcomed by us and we would work with you to reform and improve the European Union, so that it works better in the interests of all citizens.”
It was signed by 145 of the European Parliament’s 751 members.
Mr Tusk and Mr Juncker have also sent an open letter which did not contain any new commitments, but said the agreed deal was a “fair compromise that aims to ensure an orderly withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, thereby limiting the negative consequences of Brexit”.
MEPs have scheduled another debate for tomorrow morning about the outcome of Tonight’s vote in the House of Commons.