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September: What You Need To Know

Get the month’s key stats at a glance.

Volume: Muted Rentrée Follows a Busy Summer

Pie Chart of the percentage of original tweets vs retweets If you’re picking your way through the traffic in the European quarter on weekday mornings, you’ll definitely have felt September’s ‘rentrée’ effect. When it comes to online traffic, though — not so much. Tweet volume only increased around 6% compared to August, again showing that this summer was unusually busy for the policy conversation.

Activity: #UNGA & #SOTEU Fuel Conversation

Line graph of the volume of tweets from Brussels policy commentators in September 2022 Peaks in activity:
  • 14 September: Yup, you guessed it, this spike in activity was around the State of the Union address. More on that below — and read our State of the Union wrap-up for a refresher on how the speech went down with MEPs.
  • 23 September: European Council President Charles Michel addresses the UN General Assembly in New York with a wide-ranging speech condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling for the inclusion of the African Union in the G20, and reiterating the EU’s goal of climate neutrality.

Leaderboard: Worth, Carretta Most Vocal

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal Brussels policy commentators Using Twitter as a key channel for his cross-border rail campaign, Jon Worth leads by a considerable margin for the third month in a row. We’re beginning to detect a pattern here… The second most vocal commentator was David Carretta of Il Foglio. His activity in September was particularly focused on the war in Ukraine — commenting on the country’s bid to join NATO, as well as the decision of certain EU countries to close their borders to Russians fleeing Putin’s partial mobilisation. Screenshot of a tweet from David Carretta

Hashtags: Events Are Back — And Attention Turns to Hungary

Bar graph of the top 10 most used hashtags It’s clear that #crossborderrail is a constant in the online conversation as a result of Jon Worth’s ongoing campaign to drive the matter up the policy agenda. On a more sombre note, the hashtags #russia and #ukraine continue to be among the most-used as the war in Ukraine continues to unfold. Otherwise, the hashtags #un, #unga, #soteu and #elezionipolitiche2022 pointed to an event-packed month as the policy calendar — in the EU and further afield — began ramping back up after the summer break. Notable, though, was the appearance of #hungary among the most-used hashtags. The policy commentators discussed two significant developments — the first being MEPs’ symbolic vote designating Hungary as an ‘electoral autocracy’; the second being the European Commission’s recommendation to suspend 65% of EU funding to Hungary over rule-of-law concerns. Screenshot of a tweet from Jennifer Rankin

The Deep Dive: State of the Union

Each month we’ll drill down into one key area of the policy conversation, based around the Commission and Council priorities. This month, we’re looking ahead to next year’s priorities, based on the State of the Union address. The State of the Union address is a firm fixture in the Brussels policy calendar, with professionals across the city tuning in to hear the proposals that the Commission plans to drive forward over the next year. This year, though, some of our commentators were quick to point out what was missing from the Commission’s pledges — discover more below.

Top Hashtags: CoFoE Outcomes Eagerly Awaited

Bar graph of the top 5 most used hashtags about SOTEU The hashtag #cofoe ranked highly as our policy commentators listened out for proposals linked to the Conference on the Future of Europe. One example was President von der Leyen’s pledge to continue the Citizens’ Panels to give more Europeans a voice in the democratic process. Screenshot of a tweet from Pia Ahrenkilde Not everyone felt that the speech contained a significant number of concrete outcomes from #cofoe, though, as encapsulated by Alberto Alemanno’s tweet below. Screenshot of a tweet from Alberto Alemanno Separately, #ukraine and #standstrongtogether also appeared in the most-used hashtags as Ukraine formed a central focus of the speech.

Most Vocal Commentators: Agri Journalists Show Up Strong

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal commentators on SOTEU Pledges on food and agriculture policy were almost entirely absent from President von der Leyen’s speech, which didn’t go unnoticed by the Brussels Bubble — so it’s not surprising to see two agri-policy journalists (Gerardo Fortuna from EURACTIV and Eddy Wax from Politico) among our top five most vocal commentators. Screenshot of a tweet from Gerardo Fortuna Alemanno tops the scoreboard, though, as he used Twitter to react to the State of the Union address in real time — and to express his view that the speech was largely symbolic and its pledges were mainly reactive, rather than proactive.Screenshot of a tweet from Alberto Alemanno

Stay Tuned…

With EU policymakers turning their attention to a fresh batch of sanctions for Russia in early October, we anticipate that Ukraine will remain a key focus of the Brussels Bubble’s discussions. Join us next month for your regular snapshot of the online policy 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: 1-30 September 2022.
  • Retweets are excluded, except where specified.
[post_title] => The Brussels Dispatch: Policy Calendar Ramps Up — But Some Find EU's Ambitions Lacking [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => brussels-dispatch-september-2022 [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-12-31 01:00:59 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-12-31 01:00:59 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.quorum.us/?post_type=resources&p=7629 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => resources [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [queried_object_id] => 7629 [request] => SELECT wp_posts.* FROM wp_posts WHERE 1=1 AND wp_posts.post_name = 'brussels-dispatch-september-2022' AND wp_posts.post_type = 'resources' ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC [posts] => Array ( [0] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 7629 [post_author] => 42 [post_date] => 2022-10-07 12:47:05 [post_date_gmt] => 2022-10-07 12:47:05 [post_content] => 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. The month of September is synonymous with two things in Brussels — the first being the famed ‘rentrée’, and the second being the State of the Union address. These events kick off an uptick in policy activity as public affairs professionals get to work unpicking the priorities for the next year. ICYMI, we’ve put together a bite-sized refresher of what the most influential voices in the Brussels Bubble had to say about the month’s events. Get your briefing below.

September: What You Need To Know

Get the month’s key stats at a glance.

Volume: Muted Rentrée Follows a Busy Summer

Pie Chart of the percentage of original tweets vs retweets If you’re picking your way through the traffic in the European quarter on weekday mornings, you’ll definitely have felt September’s ‘rentrée’ effect. When it comes to online traffic, though — not so much. Tweet volume only increased around 6% compared to August, again showing that this summer was unusually busy for the policy conversation.

Activity: #UNGA & #SOTEU Fuel Conversation

Line graph of the volume of tweets from Brussels policy commentators in September 2022 Peaks in activity:
  • 14 September: Yup, you guessed it, this spike in activity was around the State of the Union address. More on that below — and read our State of the Union wrap-up for a refresher on how the speech went down with MEPs.
  • 23 September: European Council President Charles Michel addresses the UN General Assembly in New York with a wide-ranging speech condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling for the inclusion of the African Union in the G20, and reiterating the EU’s goal of climate neutrality.

Leaderboard: Worth, Carretta Most Vocal

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal Brussels policy commentators Using Twitter as a key channel for his cross-border rail campaign, Jon Worth leads by a considerable margin for the third month in a row. We’re beginning to detect a pattern here… The second most vocal commentator was David Carretta of Il Foglio. His activity in September was particularly focused on the war in Ukraine — commenting on the country’s bid to join NATO, as well as the decision of certain EU countries to close their borders to Russians fleeing Putin’s partial mobilisation. Screenshot of a tweet from David Carretta

Hashtags: Events Are Back — And Attention Turns to Hungary

Bar graph of the top 10 most used hashtags It’s clear that #crossborderrail is a constant in the online conversation as a result of Jon Worth’s ongoing campaign to drive the matter up the policy agenda. On a more sombre note, the hashtags #russia and #ukraine continue to be among the most-used as the war in Ukraine continues to unfold. Otherwise, the hashtags #un, #unga, #soteu and #elezionipolitiche2022 pointed to an event-packed month as the policy calendar — in the EU and further afield — began ramping back up after the summer break. Notable, though, was the appearance of #hungary among the most-used hashtags. The policy commentators discussed two significant developments — the first being MEPs’ symbolic vote designating Hungary as an ‘electoral autocracy’; the second being the European Commission’s recommendation to suspend 65% of EU funding to Hungary over rule-of-law concerns. Screenshot of a tweet from Jennifer Rankin

The Deep Dive: State of the Union

Each month we’ll drill down into one key area of the policy conversation, based around the Commission and Council priorities. This month, we’re looking ahead to next year’s priorities, based on the State of the Union address. The State of the Union address is a firm fixture in the Brussels policy calendar, with professionals across the city tuning in to hear the proposals that the Commission plans to drive forward over the next year. This year, though, some of our commentators were quick to point out what was missing from the Commission’s pledges — discover more below.

Top Hashtags: CoFoE Outcomes Eagerly Awaited

Bar graph of the top 5 most used hashtags about SOTEU The hashtag #cofoe ranked highly as our policy commentators listened out for proposals linked to the Conference on the Future of Europe. One example was President von der Leyen’s pledge to continue the Citizens’ Panels to give more Europeans a voice in the democratic process. Screenshot of a tweet from Pia Ahrenkilde Not everyone felt that the speech contained a significant number of concrete outcomes from #cofoe, though, as encapsulated by Alberto Alemanno’s tweet below. Screenshot of a tweet from Alberto Alemanno Separately, #ukraine and #standstrongtogether also appeared in the most-used hashtags as Ukraine formed a central focus of the speech.

Most Vocal Commentators: Agri Journalists Show Up Strong

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal commentators on SOTEU Pledges on food and agriculture policy were almost entirely absent from President von der Leyen’s speech, which didn’t go unnoticed by the Brussels Bubble — so it’s not surprising to see two agri-policy journalists (Gerardo Fortuna from EURACTIV and Eddy Wax from Politico) among our top five most vocal commentators. Screenshot of a tweet from Gerardo Fortuna Alemanno tops the scoreboard, though, as he used Twitter to react to the State of the Union address in real time — and to express his view that the speech was largely symbolic and its pledges were mainly reactive, rather than proactive.Screenshot of a tweet from Alberto Alemanno

Stay Tuned…

With EU policymakers turning their attention to a fresh batch of sanctions for Russia in early October, we anticipate that Ukraine will remain a key focus of the Brussels Bubble’s discussions. Join us next month for your regular snapshot of the online policy 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: 1-30 September 2022.
  • Retweets are excluded, except where specified.
[post_title] => The Brussels Dispatch: Policy Calendar Ramps Up — But Some Find EU's Ambitions Lacking [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => brussels-dispatch-september-2022 [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-12-31 01:00:59 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-12-31 01:00:59 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.quorum.us/?post_type=resources&p=7629 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => resources [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) ) [post_count] => 1 [current_post] => -1 [before_loop] => 1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 7629 [post_author] => 42 [post_date] => 2022-10-07 12:47:05 [post_date_gmt] => 2022-10-07 12:47:05 [post_content] => 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. The month of September is synonymous with two things in Brussels — the first being the famed ‘rentrée’, and the second being the State of the Union address. These events kick off an uptick in policy activity as public affairs professionals get to work unpicking the priorities for the next year. ICYMI, we’ve put together a bite-sized refresher of what the most influential voices in the Brussels Bubble had to say about the month’s events. Get your briefing below.

September: What You Need To Know

Get the month’s key stats at a glance.

Volume: Muted Rentrée Follows a Busy Summer

Pie Chart of the percentage of original tweets vs retweets If you’re picking your way through the traffic in the European quarter on weekday mornings, you’ll definitely have felt September’s ‘rentrée’ effect. When it comes to online traffic, though — not so much. Tweet volume only increased around 6% compared to August, again showing that this summer was unusually busy for the policy conversation.

Activity: #UNGA & #SOTEU Fuel Conversation

Line graph of the volume of tweets from Brussels policy commentators in September 2022 Peaks in activity:
  • 14 September: Yup, you guessed it, this spike in activity was around the State of the Union address. More on that below — and read our State of the Union wrap-up for a refresher on how the speech went down with MEPs.
  • 23 September: European Council President Charles Michel addresses the UN General Assembly in New York with a wide-ranging speech condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling for the inclusion of the African Union in the G20, and reiterating the EU’s goal of climate neutrality.

Leaderboard: Worth, Carretta Most Vocal

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal Brussels policy commentators Using Twitter as a key channel for his cross-border rail campaign, Jon Worth leads by a considerable margin for the third month in a row. We’re beginning to detect a pattern here… The second most vocal commentator was David Carretta of Il Foglio. His activity in September was particularly focused on the war in Ukraine — commenting on the country’s bid to join NATO, as well as the decision of certain EU countries to close their borders to Russians fleeing Putin’s partial mobilisation. Screenshot of a tweet from David Carretta

Hashtags: Events Are Back — And Attention Turns to Hungary

Bar graph of the top 10 most used hashtags It’s clear that #crossborderrail is a constant in the online conversation as a result of Jon Worth’s ongoing campaign to drive the matter up the policy agenda. On a more sombre note, the hashtags #russia and #ukraine continue to be among the most-used as the war in Ukraine continues to unfold. Otherwise, the hashtags #un, #unga, #soteu and #elezionipolitiche2022 pointed to an event-packed month as the policy calendar — in the EU and further afield — began ramping back up after the summer break. Notable, though, was the appearance of #hungary among the most-used hashtags. The policy commentators discussed two significant developments — the first being MEPs’ symbolic vote designating Hungary as an ‘electoral autocracy’; the second being the European Commission’s recommendation to suspend 65% of EU funding to Hungary over rule-of-law concerns. Screenshot of a tweet from Jennifer Rankin

The Deep Dive: State of the Union

Each month we’ll drill down into one key area of the policy conversation, based around the Commission and Council priorities. This month, we’re looking ahead to next year’s priorities, based on the State of the Union address. The State of the Union address is a firm fixture in the Brussels policy calendar, with professionals across the city tuning in to hear the proposals that the Commission plans to drive forward over the next year. This year, though, some of our commentators were quick to point out what was missing from the Commission’s pledges — discover more below.

Top Hashtags: CoFoE Outcomes Eagerly Awaited

Bar graph of the top 5 most used hashtags about SOTEU The hashtag #cofoe ranked highly as our policy commentators listened out for proposals linked to the Conference on the Future of Europe. One example was President von der Leyen’s pledge to continue the Citizens’ Panels to give more Europeans a voice in the democratic process. Screenshot of a tweet from Pia Ahrenkilde Not everyone felt that the speech contained a significant number of concrete outcomes from #cofoe, though, as encapsulated by Alberto Alemanno’s tweet below. Screenshot of a tweet from Alberto Alemanno Separately, #ukraine and #standstrongtogether also appeared in the most-used hashtags as Ukraine formed a central focus of the speech.

Most Vocal Commentators: Agri Journalists Show Up Strong

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal commentators on SOTEU Pledges on food and agriculture policy were almost entirely absent from President von der Leyen’s speech, which didn’t go unnoticed by the Brussels Bubble — so it’s not surprising to see two agri-policy journalists (Gerardo Fortuna from EURACTIV and Eddy Wax from Politico) among our top five most vocal commentators. Screenshot of a tweet from Gerardo Fortuna Alemanno tops the scoreboard, though, as he used Twitter to react to the State of the Union address in real time — and to express his view that the speech was largely symbolic and its pledges were mainly reactive, rather than proactive.Screenshot of a tweet from Alberto Alemanno

Stay Tuned…

With EU policymakers turning their attention to a fresh batch of sanctions for Russia in early October, we anticipate that Ukraine will remain a key focus of the Brussels Bubble’s discussions. Join us next month for your regular snapshot of the online policy 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: 1-30 September 2022.
  • Retweets are excluded, except where specified.
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!!! 7629
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The Brussels Dispatch: Policy Calendar Ramps Up — But Some Find EU’s Ambitions Lacking

The Brussels Dispatch: Policy Calendar Ramps Up — But Some Find EU’s Ambitions Lacking

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.

The month of September is synonymous with two things in Brussels — the first being the famed ‘rentrée’, and the second being the State of the Union address. These events kick off an uptick in policy activity as public affairs professionals get to work unpicking the priorities for the next year.

ICYMI, we’ve put together a bite-sized refresher of what the most influential voices in the Brussels Bubble had to say about the month’s events. Get your briefing below.

September: What You Need To Know

Get the month’s key stats at a glance.

Volume: Muted Rentrée Follows a Busy Summer

Pie Chart of the percentage of original tweets vs retweets

If you’re picking your way through the traffic in the European quarter on weekday mornings, you’ll definitely have felt September’s ‘rentrée’ effect. When it comes to online traffic, though — not so much. Tweet volume only increased around 6% compared to August, again showing that this summer was unusually busy for the policy conversation.

Activity: #UNGA & #SOTEU Fuel Conversation

Line graph of the volume of tweets from Brussels policy commentators in September 2022

Peaks in activity:

  • 14 September: Yup, you guessed it, this spike in activity was around the State of the Union address. More on that below — and read our State of the Union wrap-up for a refresher on how the speech went down with MEPs.
  • 23 September: European Council President Charles Michel addresses the UN General Assembly in New York with a wide-ranging speech condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling for the inclusion of the African Union in the G20, and reiterating the EU’s goal of climate neutrality.

Leaderboard: Worth, Carretta Most Vocal

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal Brussels policy commentators

Using Twitter as a key channel for his cross-border rail campaign, Jon Worth leads by a considerable margin for the third month in a row. We’re beginning to detect a pattern here…

The second most vocal commentator was David Carretta of Il Foglio. His activity in September was particularly focused on the war in Ukraine — commenting on the country’s bid to join NATO, as well as the decision of certain EU countries to close their borders to Russians fleeing Putin’s partial mobilisation.

Screenshot of a tweet from David Carretta

Hashtags: Events Are Back — And Attention Turns to Hungary

Bar graph of the top 10 most used hashtags

It’s clear that #crossborderrail is a constant in the online conversation as a result of Jon Worth’s ongoing campaign to drive the matter up the policy agenda. On a more sombre note, the hashtags #russia and #ukraine continue to be among the most-used as the war in Ukraine continues to unfold.

Otherwise, the hashtags #un, #unga, #soteu and #elezionipolitiche2022 pointed to an event-packed month as the policy calendar — in the EU and further afield — began ramping back up after the summer break.

Notable, though, was the appearance of #hungary among the most-used hashtags. The policy commentators discussed two significant developments — the first being MEPs’ symbolic vote designating Hungary as an ‘electoral autocracy’; the second being the European Commission’s recommendation to suspend 65% of EU funding to Hungary over rule-of-law concerns.

Screenshot of a tweet from Jennifer Rankin

The Deep Dive: State of the Union

Each month we’ll drill down into one key area of the policy conversation, based around the Commission and Council priorities. This month, we’re looking ahead to next year’s priorities, based on the State of the Union address.

The State of the Union address is a firm fixture in the Brussels policy calendar, with professionals across the city tuning in to hear the proposals that the Commission plans to drive forward over the next year. This year, though, some of our commentators were quick to point out what was missing from the Commission’s pledges — discover more below.

Top Hashtags: CoFoE Outcomes Eagerly Awaited

Bar graph of the top 5 most used hashtags about SOTEU

The hashtag #cofoe ranked highly as our policy commentators listened out for proposals linked to the Conference on the Future of Europe. One example was President von der Leyen’s pledge to continue the Citizens’ Panels to give more Europeans a voice in the democratic process.

Screenshot of a tweet from Pia Ahrenkilde

Not everyone felt that the speech contained a significant number of concrete outcomes from #cofoe, though, as encapsulated by Alberto Alemanno’s tweet below.

Screenshot of a tweet from Alberto Alemanno

Separately, #ukraine and #standstrongtogether also appeared in the most-used hashtags as Ukraine formed a central focus of the speech.

Most Vocal Commentators: Agri Journalists Show Up Strong

Bar graph of the top 5 most vocal commentators on SOTEU

Pledges on food and agriculture policy were almost entirely absent from President von der Leyen’s speech, which didn’t go unnoticed by the Brussels Bubble — so it’s not surprising to see two agri-policy journalists (Gerardo Fortuna from EURACTIV and Eddy Wax from Politico) among our top five most vocal commentators. Screenshot of a tweet from Gerardo Fortuna

Alemanno tops the scoreboard, though, as he used Twitter to react to the State of the Union address in real time — and to express his view that the speech was largely symbolic and its pledges were mainly reactive, rather than proactive.Screenshot of a tweet from Alberto Alemanno

Stay Tuned…

With EU policymakers turning their attention to a fresh batch of sanctions for Russia in early October, we anticipate that Ukraine will remain a key focus of the Brussels Bubble’s discussions. Join us next month for your regular snapshot of the online policy 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: 1-30 September 2022.
  • Retweets are excluded, except where specified.

CUSTOM SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING

Discover How Quorum Can Help You Keep a Pulse on the Policy Conversation