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August: A Snapshot

Get the month’s key stats at a glance.

Volume: Activity Up 20% Since July, Bucking Typical August Trends

Pie chart of the percentages of original tweets vs retweets
  • Approximately 14,300 tweets were sent in August. That’s about a 20% increase compared to July.
  • Retweets accounted for 56.1% of the total, compared to 48.8% in July. This suggests that, despite the overall increase in activity, the policy commentators still took a ‘summer holidays' approach in some ways by dedicating less time to posting original tweets.

Activity: Pelosi’s Taiwan Visit Sparks Debate

Line graph of the volume of tweets from Brussel commentators in August 2022 Peaks in activity:
  • 2 August: Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the United States House of Representatives, visits Taiwan.
  • 24 August: Remco Timmermans pushes up the day’s volume of tweets by participating in the #scicommchat by @SciCommClub — a weekly Twitter conversation for communications professionals in the life sciences and healthcare industries.

Leaderboard: Jon Worth Is Most Vocal for the Second Month Running

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal Brussels policy commentators Jon Worth tops the leaderboard for the second month in a row as he continued the #CrossBorderRail conversation — notably wrapping up his journey and sharing 20 recommendations to improve international rail crossings. For more context, check out The Brussels Dispatch: July Edition. Screenshot of a tweet from Jon Worth

Hashtags: Ukraine Still Top of Mind

Bar graph of the top 10 most used hashtags surrounding Ukraine Setting aside Worth’s #CrossBorderRail activity, this month’s top hashtags show that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued to dominate the online conversation — more on that later. Other events that made headlines during the last month, such as the Greek spying scandal affecting Mitsotakis’ government, are surprisingly absent from the most-used hashtags. This is likely to be due to the social media strategy of individual commentators who use other dedicated hashtags on a regular basis to promote their own content — for example, Marguerite Gazze drove up usage of #cleanenergy and #climatechange last month as she pushed her daily bulletin on paper.li.

The Deep Dive: War in Ukraine

Each month we’ll drill down into one key area of the policy conversation, based around the Commission and Council priorities. This month, it’s the conflict in Ukraine. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent shockwaves across Europe and the rest of the world, with far-ranging consequences including millions of displaced people and soaring energy bills. The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU acknowledged the urgency for the EU to act by dedicating one of its five priorities to managing the refugee crisis and Ukraine’s recovery.

Top Hashtags: Solidarity with Ukraine

This was reflected in August’s online conversation as Brussels’ political commentators continued to use their platforms to raise awareness of the worsening situation in Ukraine. Bar graph of the top 10 most used hashtags about Ukraine Notably, three of the top ten hashtags in the conversation around the war in Ukraine showed solidarity with the country — #standwithukraine, #crimeofaggression, and #aggression — as commentators marked Ukrainian Independence Day on 24 August and sought to keep Ukraine high up the policy agenda. Attention also turned towards Russian citizens — in particular, their freedom to travel to the EU. Border crossings from Russia to the EU increased significantly in July, which led several Eastern European Member States to call for a blanket ban on issuing tourist visas to Russians, citing national security risks. Other European countries argued against a full ban, underlining the need to remain open for Russian citizens who oppose the war. By the end of the month, EU foreign ministers agreed on a deal to make it slower and more complicated for Russian citizens to be granted visas by EU countries. Screenshot of a tweet from Shona Murray

Most Vocal Commentators

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal commentators on Ukraine Lotte Leicht was the most vocal commentator on the Ukraine conversation — perhaps unsurprisingly given her work focuses on human rights, a topic closely intertwined with the conflict. Theresa Fallon ranked highly too, with her position as Director of the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies making her an authoritative voice on the topic. Screenshot of a tweet from Lotte Leicht

Wrapping Up

As expected, this August was somewhat busier than the typical Brussels August. With the State of the Union address taking place in September, we expect to see the EU’s priorities — and the resulting online conversation — influenced significantly by the crisis in Ukraine. Stay tuned for next month’s edition of The Brussels Dispatch to keep a pulse on the conversation.

Methodology

  • We used Quorum’s custom social media monitoring capabilities to analyse the Twitter output of over 130 influential figures from across the Brussels Bubble.
  • Time period: 1-31 August 2022.
  • Retweets are excluded, except where specified.
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August: A Snapshot

Get the month’s key stats at a glance.

Volume: Activity Up 20% Since July, Bucking Typical August Trends

Pie chart of the percentages of original tweets vs retweets
  • Approximately 14,300 tweets were sent in August. That’s about a 20% increase compared to July.
  • Retweets accounted for 56.1% of the total, compared to 48.8% in July. This suggests that, despite the overall increase in activity, the policy commentators still took a ‘summer holidays' approach in some ways by dedicating less time to posting original tweets.

Activity: Pelosi’s Taiwan Visit Sparks Debate

Line graph of the volume of tweets from Brussel commentators in August 2022 Peaks in activity:
  • 2 August: Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the United States House of Representatives, visits Taiwan.
  • 24 August: Remco Timmermans pushes up the day’s volume of tweets by participating in the #scicommchat by @SciCommClub — a weekly Twitter conversation for communications professionals in the life sciences and healthcare industries.

Leaderboard: Jon Worth Is Most Vocal for the Second Month Running

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal Brussels policy commentators Jon Worth tops the leaderboard for the second month in a row as he continued the #CrossBorderRail conversation — notably wrapping up his journey and sharing 20 recommendations to improve international rail crossings. For more context, check out The Brussels Dispatch: July Edition. Screenshot of a tweet from Jon Worth

Hashtags: Ukraine Still Top of Mind

Bar graph of the top 10 most used hashtags surrounding Ukraine Setting aside Worth’s #CrossBorderRail activity, this month’s top hashtags show that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued to dominate the online conversation — more on that later. Other events that made headlines during the last month, such as the Greek spying scandal affecting Mitsotakis’ government, are surprisingly absent from the most-used hashtags. This is likely to be due to the social media strategy of individual commentators who use other dedicated hashtags on a regular basis to promote their own content — for example, Marguerite Gazze drove up usage of #cleanenergy and #climatechange last month as she pushed her daily bulletin on paper.li.

The Deep Dive: War in Ukraine

Each month we’ll drill down into one key area of the policy conversation, based around the Commission and Council priorities. This month, it’s the conflict in Ukraine. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent shockwaves across Europe and the rest of the world, with far-ranging consequences including millions of displaced people and soaring energy bills. The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU acknowledged the urgency for the EU to act by dedicating one of its five priorities to managing the refugee crisis and Ukraine’s recovery.

Top Hashtags: Solidarity with Ukraine

This was reflected in August’s online conversation as Brussels’ political commentators continued to use their platforms to raise awareness of the worsening situation in Ukraine. Bar graph of the top 10 most used hashtags about Ukraine Notably, three of the top ten hashtags in the conversation around the war in Ukraine showed solidarity with the country — #standwithukraine, #crimeofaggression, and #aggression — as commentators marked Ukrainian Independence Day on 24 August and sought to keep Ukraine high up the policy agenda. Attention also turned towards Russian citizens — in particular, their freedom to travel to the EU. Border crossings from Russia to the EU increased significantly in July, which led several Eastern European Member States to call for a blanket ban on issuing tourist visas to Russians, citing national security risks. Other European countries argued against a full ban, underlining the need to remain open for Russian citizens who oppose the war. By the end of the month, EU foreign ministers agreed on a deal to make it slower and more complicated for Russian citizens to be granted visas by EU countries. Screenshot of a tweet from Shona Murray

Most Vocal Commentators

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal commentators on Ukraine Lotte Leicht was the most vocal commentator on the Ukraine conversation — perhaps unsurprisingly given her work focuses on human rights, a topic closely intertwined with the conflict. Theresa Fallon ranked highly too, with her position as Director of the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies making her an authoritative voice on the topic. Screenshot of a tweet from Lotte Leicht

Wrapping Up

As expected, this August was somewhat busier than the typical Brussels August. With the State of the Union address taking place in September, we expect to see the EU’s priorities — and the resulting online conversation — influenced significantly by the crisis in Ukraine. Stay tuned for next month’s edition of The Brussels Dispatch to keep a pulse on the conversation.

Methodology

  • We used Quorum’s custom social media monitoring capabilities to analyse the Twitter output of over 130 influential figures from across the Brussels Bubble.
  • Time period: 1-31 August 2022.
  • Retweets are excluded, except where specified.
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August: A Snapshot

Get the month’s key stats at a glance.

Volume: Activity Up 20% Since July, Bucking Typical August Trends

Pie chart of the percentages of original tweets vs retweets
  • Approximately 14,300 tweets were sent in August. That’s about a 20% increase compared to July.
  • Retweets accounted for 56.1% of the total, compared to 48.8% in July. This suggests that, despite the overall increase in activity, the policy commentators still took a ‘summer holidays' approach in some ways by dedicating less time to posting original tweets.

Activity: Pelosi’s Taiwan Visit Sparks Debate

Line graph of the volume of tweets from Brussel commentators in August 2022 Peaks in activity:
  • 2 August: Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the United States House of Representatives, visits Taiwan.
  • 24 August: Remco Timmermans pushes up the day’s volume of tweets by participating in the #scicommchat by @SciCommClub — a weekly Twitter conversation for communications professionals in the life sciences and healthcare industries.

Leaderboard: Jon Worth Is Most Vocal for the Second Month Running

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal Brussels policy commentators Jon Worth tops the leaderboard for the second month in a row as he continued the #CrossBorderRail conversation — notably wrapping up his journey and sharing 20 recommendations to improve international rail crossings. For more context, check out The Brussels Dispatch: July Edition. Screenshot of a tweet from Jon Worth

Hashtags: Ukraine Still Top of Mind

Bar graph of the top 10 most used hashtags surrounding Ukraine Setting aside Worth’s #CrossBorderRail activity, this month’s top hashtags show that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued to dominate the online conversation — more on that later. Other events that made headlines during the last month, such as the Greek spying scandal affecting Mitsotakis’ government, are surprisingly absent from the most-used hashtags. This is likely to be due to the social media strategy of individual commentators who use other dedicated hashtags on a regular basis to promote their own content — for example, Marguerite Gazze drove up usage of #cleanenergy and #climatechange last month as she pushed her daily bulletin on paper.li.

The Deep Dive: War in Ukraine

Each month we’ll drill down into one key area of the policy conversation, based around the Commission and Council priorities. This month, it’s the conflict in Ukraine. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent shockwaves across Europe and the rest of the world, with far-ranging consequences including millions of displaced people and soaring energy bills. The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU acknowledged the urgency for the EU to act by dedicating one of its five priorities to managing the refugee crisis and Ukraine’s recovery.

Top Hashtags: Solidarity with Ukraine

This was reflected in August’s online conversation as Brussels’ political commentators continued to use their platforms to raise awareness of the worsening situation in Ukraine. Bar graph of the top 10 most used hashtags about Ukraine Notably, three of the top ten hashtags in the conversation around the war in Ukraine showed solidarity with the country — #standwithukraine, #crimeofaggression, and #aggression — as commentators marked Ukrainian Independence Day on 24 August and sought to keep Ukraine high up the policy agenda. Attention also turned towards Russian citizens — in particular, their freedom to travel to the EU. Border crossings from Russia to the EU increased significantly in July, which led several Eastern European Member States to call for a blanket ban on issuing tourist visas to Russians, citing national security risks. Other European countries argued against a full ban, underlining the need to remain open for Russian citizens who oppose the war. By the end of the month, EU foreign ministers agreed on a deal to make it slower and more complicated for Russian citizens to be granted visas by EU countries. Screenshot of a tweet from Shona Murray

Most Vocal Commentators

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal commentators on Ukraine Lotte Leicht was the most vocal commentator on the Ukraine conversation — perhaps unsurprisingly given her work focuses on human rights, a topic closely intertwined with the conflict. Theresa Fallon ranked highly too, with her position as Director of the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies making her an authoritative voice on the topic. Screenshot of a tweet from Lotte Leicht

Wrapping Up

As expected, this August was somewhat busier than the typical Brussels August. With the State of the Union address taking place in September, we expect to see the EU’s priorities — and the resulting online conversation — influenced significantly by the crisis in Ukraine. Stay tuned for next month’s edition of The Brussels Dispatch to keep a pulse on the conversation.

Methodology

  • We used Quorum’s custom social media monitoring capabilities to analyse the Twitter output of over 130 influential figures from across the Brussels Bubble.
  • Time period: 1-31 August 2022.
  • Retweets are excluded, except where specified.
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The Brussels Dispatch: No August Slowdown as Europe Faces Impact of War in Ukraine

The Brussels Dispatch: No August Slowdown as Europe Faces Impact of War in Ukraine

Welcome to The Brussels Dispatch — your monthly guide to what’s hot in the Brussels policy world. Discover key insights from the Twitter output of over 130 of the most influential voices in town — covering journalists, academics, trade association staffers, NGO advocates, and more.

It’s no secret that August is traditionally a quiet time in the Brussels Bubble. But this August was a little different. While the streets of the European Quarter emptied out as usual for the summer break, the global news cycle showed no signs of slowing down — with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine notably continuing to dominate headlines and fuelling the online conversation.

Need to catch up on what you missed over the summer break? Read on. Here’s your update on what got the Brussels Bubble talking last month.

August: A Snapshot

Get the month’s key stats at a glance.

Volume: Activity Up 20% Since July, Bucking Typical August Trends

Pie chart of the percentages of original tweets vs retweets

  • Approximately 14,300 tweets were sent in August. That’s about a 20% increase compared to July.
  • Retweets accounted for 56.1% of the total, compared to 48.8% in July. This suggests that, despite the overall increase in activity, the policy commentators still took a ‘summer holidays’ approach in some ways by dedicating less time to posting original tweets.

Activity: Pelosi’s Taiwan Visit Sparks Debate

Line graph of the volume of tweets from Brussel commentators in August 2022

Peaks in activity:

  • 2 August: Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the United States House of Representatives, visits Taiwan.
  • 24 August: Remco Timmermans pushes up the day’s volume of tweets by participating in the #scicommchat by @SciCommClub — a weekly Twitter conversation for communications professionals in the life sciences and healthcare industries.

Leaderboard: Jon Worth Is Most Vocal for the Second Month Running

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal Brussels policy commentators

Jon Worth tops the leaderboard for the second month in a row as he continued the #CrossBorderRail conversation — notably wrapping up his journey and sharing 20 recommendations to improve international rail crossings. For more context, check out The Brussels Dispatch: July Edition.

Screenshot of a tweet from Jon Worth

Hashtags: Ukraine Still Top of Mind

Bar graph of the top 10 most used hashtags surrounding Ukraine

Setting aside Worth’s #CrossBorderRail activity, this month’s top hashtags show that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued to dominate the online conversation — more on that later.

Other events that made headlines during the last month, such as the Greek spying scandal affecting Mitsotakis’ government, are surprisingly absent from the most-used hashtags. This is likely to be due to the social media strategy of individual commentators who use other dedicated hashtags on a regular basis to promote their own content — for example, Marguerite Gazze drove up usage of #cleanenergy and #climatechange last month as she pushed her daily bulletin on paper.li.

The Deep Dive: War in Ukraine

Each month we’ll drill down into one key area of the policy conversation, based around the Commission and Council priorities. This month, it’s the conflict in Ukraine.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent shockwaves across Europe and the rest of the world, with far-ranging consequences including millions of displaced people and soaring energy bills. The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU acknowledged the urgency for the EU to act by dedicating one of its five priorities to managing the refugee crisis and Ukraine’s recovery.

Top Hashtags: Solidarity with Ukraine

This was reflected in August’s online conversation as Brussels’ political commentators continued to use their platforms to raise awareness of the worsening situation in Ukraine.

Bar graph of the top 10 most used hashtags about Ukraine

Notably, three of the top ten hashtags in the conversation around the war in Ukraine showed solidarity with the country — #standwithukraine, #crimeofaggression, and #aggression — as commentators marked Ukrainian Independence Day on 24 August and sought to keep Ukraine high up the policy agenda.

Attention also turned towards Russian citizens — in particular, their freedom to travel to the EU. Border crossings from Russia to the EU increased significantly in July, which led several Eastern European Member States to call for a blanket ban on issuing tourist visas to Russians, citing national security risks. Other European countries argued against a full ban, underlining the need to remain open for Russian citizens who oppose the war. By the end of the month, EU foreign ministers agreed on a deal to make it slower and more complicated for Russian citizens to be granted visas by EU countries.

Screenshot of a tweet from Shona Murray

Most Vocal Commentators

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal commentators on Ukraine

Lotte Leicht was the most vocal commentator on the Ukraine conversation — perhaps unsurprisingly given her work focuses on human rights, a topic closely intertwined with the conflict. Theresa Fallon ranked highly too, with her position as Director of the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies making her an authoritative voice on the topic.

Screenshot of a tweet from Lotte Leicht

Wrapping Up

As expected, this August was somewhat busier than the typical Brussels August. With the State of the Union address taking place in September, we expect to see the EU’s priorities — and the resulting online conversation — influenced significantly by the crisis in Ukraine.

Stay tuned for next month’s edition of The Brussels Dispatch to keep a pulse on the conversation.

Methodology

  • We used Quorum’s custom social media monitoring capabilities to analyse the Twitter output of over 130 influential figures from across the Brussels Bubble.
  • Time period: 1-31 August 2022.
  • Retweets are excluded, except where specified.