26% of the social conversation on European issues is now about security and defense

Security and defense already account for 26% of the public conversation about the EU’s strategic agenda. The percentage is significantly higher in countries such as Latvia (71%), Slovakia (68%), the Czech Republic (64%), or Estonia (63%), where perceptions of external threats are greater. In other countries, the dominant public conversation focuses on democracy and values, particularly France (46%) and Spain (44%). In contrast with these and other strategic priorities, competitiveness has been central to 47% of the European Commission’s speeches during the first year of its new mandate, according to the report VDL 2.1: Unified voice, fragmented audience, weak reception, produced by LLYC.

As the second European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen marks the first year of its mandate, the report analyzes how it has communicated its new strategic agenda — and how that agenda is being received by digital media and citizens across the 27 Member States. To do so, LLYC analyzed a high volume of data related to institutional, media, and citizen conversations about the EU’s strategic priorities:

• The 851 speeches delivered by the 27 Commissioners since the mandate began last December.
• More than 1,500 posts from the European Commission’s official X account linked to its strategic priorities.
• More than 2.5 million mentions from digital media outlets.
• And more than 18 million mentions on X across all Member States.

“We set out to combine our data-analysis capabilities with our expertise in communication and European affairs to answer several simple but crucial questions: Is the Commission communicating its strategic agenda? And in such a critical geopolitical moment, is it fostering connection or disconnection with citizens? The results indicate that it is not meeting its objectives,” says Luisa García, Partner and Global CEO of Corporate Affairs at LLYC.

A unified voice in Brussels, a fragmented audience across Member States

The Commission’s new mandate began with a stated commitment to place competitiveness at the center of policymaking to strengthen strategic sovereignty in an increasingly volatile global landscape. LLYC’s analysis confirms that the institution has successfully articulated a cohesive narrative around this theme:

• Nearly half of Commissioners’ speeches (47%) focus on competitiveness.
• Competitiveness and the EU’s global role account for more than 40% of the Commission’s communication activity on X.
• Terms like “innovation” and “investment” are among the most frequently used in Commissioners’ public remarks.

Beyond the numbers, the Commission’s internal structure reinforces how central this theme is. Despite Von der Leyen’s clear leadership, competitiveness is not tied to a single spokesperson; instead, it appears consistently in the communication of multiple Commissioners, such as Valdis Dombrovskis and Maroš Šefčovič, strengthening its cross-cutting character.

By contrast, European citizens’ conversations are far more heterogeneous, shaped in part by differing risk perceptions. The media ecosystem also partially mirrors this thematic diversity.

• Security issues account for up to 38% of digital media coverage of the strategic agenda, rising to 56%–68% in Lithuania, Latvia, Croatia, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.
• Competitiveness emerges as the second most relevant topic here, with 21% of coverage by European digital media.

European values: a pathway to strengthening citizen connection

The report shows that the fragmentation of Europe’s public conversation places limits on the Commission’s significant effort to position competitiveness at the core of its narrative, especially in a media environment that prioritizes what is urgent over what is structural.

In response to this challenge, LLYC concludes that reinforcing the institutional narrative through the European Union’s foundational values (human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and human rights) could improve citizen receptiveness to the Commission’s strategy.

Ángel Álvarez Alberdi, Senior Director at LLYC and Head of its Brussels office, says: “Based on our analysis, the challenge is not only to communicate more or better, it is to communicate with purpose. It means broadening the shared narrative around the values that give the European project its legitimacy and its capacity for collective action.”