Following the publication of the EU’s Clean Industrial Deal, questions remained as to whether the European Commission could sustain the positive online sentiment it had developed as stakeholders began to assess the potential impacts of the package.
Our latest analysis focuses on social media commentary by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) over the last six months, showing who the movers and shakers are as we begin a new legislative term focused on the competitiveness and industrial decarbonisation drive.
Using our proprietary Penta Live platform, we looked into what MEPs from the European Parliament’s specialised committees - Environment, Climate and Food Safety (ENVI), Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) published on the social media platform ‘X’ since the start of this parliamentary term. Given their competences on climate, industry, and economic policy, these committees are expected to play a central role in shaping the Clean Industrial Deal's legislative agenda, with initiatives to address high energy costs, global competition, and the need for sustainable industrial transformation.
The traditional ‘centrist coalition’ of the European People’s Party (EPP), Renew Group and Socialists & Democrats (S&D) leads the way, with over two-thirds (+66%) of all Clean Industrial Deal-related posts, despite the combined constituency of the three groups constituting 55% of all MEPs. Punching well above their weight, the Greens-EFA follow with a share of around 16% of the commentary, despite representing just 7% of all MEPs in the European Parliament. Interestingly, the Greens’ share equalled that of the right-wing ECR and Patriots for Europe groups combined, despite ECR and Patriots being much larger forces in the Parliament, representing 11% and 12% of all MEPs respectively.
However, this isn’t just a story of party politics, because nationality appears to have a major bearing on positioning on this initiative. Belgian MEPs, despite making up only a small delegation of nine members (representing 4% of all seats) across the committees we looked at, accounted for more than 20% of the conversation which was more than any other Member State. Spanish MEPs were next at 16%, whereas larger delegations like Germany and France lagged well behind. The imbalance is striking, particularly given the political and industrial weight those countries typically carry in the EU discourse.
It’s also been a committee-driven conversation, and the pre-eminence of the ITRE Committee, relative to the dominance of the ENVI Committee from the last political mandate (2019-2024) is indicative of the change in political priorities since the last European Parliament elections. Indeed ITRE MEPs were the most vocal by far (71%) with ENVI MEPs remaining relatively quiet.
One other dimension we looked at was the visibility of the posts over time. As the graph shows, engagement around the Clean Industrial Deal peaked twice; first in November, driven by the Commissioner hearings, and then more dramatically in February, coinciding with the Commission’s formal presentation of the proposal. Since then, the prominence of online political debate has declined considerably, but this is likely to be a short-lived phenomenon with momentum picking back up again in Q3/4 2025 with the publication of the Commission’s first major legislative proposal under the Clean Industrial Deal; the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act.
The role played by Committees is also important with regards to message visibility. As evidenced by Penta’s data, the ITRE Committee MEPs have been successful in driving engagement on the topic. Thus campaigners seeking to raise the prominence of their messages would be wise to ensure engagement with ITRE members, above those from the ENVI or other Committees.
The most active voices on the Clean Industrial Deal within the European Parliament have been Sara Matthieu (Greens/EFA, Belgium), Wouter Beke (EPP, Belgium), and Raúl de la Hoz Quintano (EPP, Spain). However, for political strategists, it’s important to note that their key lines of messaging differ significantly:
This highlights the need for a nuanced and targeted approach to stakeholder engagement to increase message visibility and public discourse penetration.
Overall, since the publication of the Clean Industrial Deal, MEPs’ online discourse has been supportive of the Commission’s initiative. A large share of X posts conveyed support for the CID, particularly those from the EPP and Renew Europe, with the latter notably avoiding any negative commentary altogether. The Left and Patriots for Europe, however, expressed little to no enthusiasm. This is important from the perspective of this European Parliament’s razor-tight majority, amidst tensions between the three governing groups: the EPP, S&D and Renew.
While the toughest tests are yet to come - namely when the Commission publishes its first legislative initiative under the package - this represents an important first litmus test passed for the Commission in regaining support for its landmark initiatives after a bruising two years for its Green Deal, which we discovered in a previous analysis has experienced significant “greenlash”, significantly testing the political resilience of the Commission’s green policies.
The Commission may have won the initial PR battle, but if the Clean Industrial Deal is to last, it will need to fill in the blanks on what the deal will actually deliver and provide lawmakers with clear, concrete measures they can champion.
Penta Live is our proprietary Stakeholder Intelligence platform, tracking +25 million pieces of global content on more than 50,000 companies every day. Our platform shows you what’s being said, who’s saying it and helps you understand why it matters. It brings together global media coverage, including premium outlets, industry news, regional broadcast media, all in one centralised platform. By consolidating this information, Penta Live enables you to track, monitor, and analyse public discourse in a single place, providing a comprehensive view of how and where key topics are being discussed.