Figure 17 – Average EU leaders’ tweets on external relations, January 2019-June 2020

These spikes are linked to the necessity of support for the opening of negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia in view of the anticipated Western Balkans Summit, which was initially planned to take place in Zagreb, but was held virtually instead, as a result of coronavirus-related restrictions.
Tweets on the Western Balkans reached a significant level of attention in the aftermath of the first wave of coronavirus, when leaders committed to support the Western Balkans region and provide an EU perspective, in the video-conference held on 6 May 2020. As a separate external policy issue, Twitter mentions of the Eastern Partnership also sky-rocketed in June 2020, as EU leaders mostly tweeted their determination to strengthen cooperation with Eastern partners after the 18 June video-conference. To conclude, it can be argued that significant peaks of activity on the external relations policy area are clearly associated with specific events, such as online meetings with strategic partners.