The Twitter activity of members of the European Council

Over recent years, the members of the European Council have, in a number of landmark declarations such as the Bratislava Declaration, pointed to the need to improve communication with citizens, as part of the process of building greater trust and confidence in the European Union and its institutions. As social media, and notably Twitter, have become an important part of politicians' communication strategy generally, this study looks at how EU leaders in the European Council communicate on Europe specifically via Twitter.This EPRS study explores provides an overview of the activity on Twitter of all members of the European Council over an 18-month period – in just over 31 000 tweets posted between January 2019 and June 2020 – covering a very wide range of issues. The study identifies the European topics that EU leaders tweet about – their own interactions, external relations and the EU budget – and it explores the ways in which they communicate and engage with their target audiences, as well as pointing to differences of approach between them. EU-related tweets represent on average about a fifth of all EU leaders' tweets, with a greater emphasis on meetings as such than on substantive policy issues.Given that EU leaders’ tweets on European issues are often picked up less than those on domestic issues, the study looks at whether there is unused potential for them to communicate better on Europe via Twitter, and suggests a number of techniques that might help them better explain Europe to a wider audience through this platform.