Twitter has become the channel of choice for quick government interaction and six-second soundbites.   Annual Twitter Study Finds governments become savvier in the use of social media channel Geneva, 28 April 2015 – Over the past four years Twitter has become the social media channel of choice for world leaders to reach large audiences with key messages and soundbites according to Burson-Marsteller’s Twiplomacy study, an annual global survey of world leaders on Twitter. Twiplomacy aims to identify the extent to which world leaders use Twitter and how they connect on the social network. Governments are putting more efforts into their social media communication including more visuals and videos in their tweets. Some such as the @Elysee palace are regularly posting six-second Vine videos to summarize state visits or to cheer their team as the German Foreign Ministry did during the World Cup. A handful of leaders including the Elysée Palace and the Kremlin are also early adopters of Twitter’s new livestreaming application Periscope. Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos has recently gone live on Periscope announcing the resumption of air raids against the FARC rebels. Released today, the study analyzed 669 government accounts in 166 countries and revealed that 86 percent of all 193 United Nations (UN) governments have a presence on Twitter. 172 heads of state and government have personal Twitter accounts and only 27 countries, mainly in Africa and Asia-Pacific, do not have any Twitter presence.

As of 24 March 2015, the five most followed world leaders were U.S. President Barack Obama (@BarackObama) (57 million followers of the U.S. president’s campaign account), Pope Francis (@Pontifex) with 20 million followers on his nine different language accounts, India’s Prime Minister @NarendraModi, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RT_Erdogan) and the @WhiteHouse. However, the most followed world leaders follow few other peers, and they are hardly conversational. @BarackObama and the @WhiteHouse only follow four other world leaders, namely Norway’s Erna Solberg, Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev, the UK government and Estonia’s Foreign Minister Keit Pentus. While @BarackObama is the most followed world leader he is also dwarfed in terms of retweets per tweet by Pope Francis who averages almost 10,000 retweets for each tweet sent on his Spanish account against 1,210 for each tweet sent by @BarackObama.

European foreign ministers use Twitter also to establish mutual connections, creating a virtual diplomatic network. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (@LaurentFabius) is the best connected foreign minister, mutually connected to 100 peers. Russia’s Foreign Ministry is in second position maintaining mutual Twitter relations with 93 other world leaders. The Foreign Ministry in Paris is in third place with 90 mutual connections. These mutual connections among foreign ministers allow for private conversations via direct messages on Twitter. “This study illustrates that governments are becoming savvier and more professional in the use of social media,” said Jeremy Galbraith, CEO of Burson-Marsteller Europe, Middle East and Africa and Global Chief Strategy Officer. “It is interesting to see how foreign ministries have honed their social strategies and built substantial dedicated teams to manage their online channels. We believe corporations can learn a lot from governments and their leaders on Twitter.”

More than 4,100 embassies and ambassadors are now active on Twitter. In New York, Washington, London and Brussels most diplomatic missions use Twitter to have a voice at the digital table. Canada, the EU, France, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, the UK and the U.S. have put most of their embassies and missions on Twitter. The UK Foreign Office in London also encourages personal engagement by its ambassadors, and it is virtually impossible to become a Foreign Office diplomat without using digital tools. “It always amazes me how quickly governments adapt to the ever changing social media landscape,” said Matthias Lüfkens, Burson-Marsteller’s EMEA Digital Practice Leader and author of the report. “Some governments have become very professional at using Twitter’s six second Vine videos and others are already going live on Persicope, Twitter’s latest livestreaming application.” Other key findings include:

• All but one of the G20 governments have an official Twitter presence, and six of the G7 leaders have a personal Twitter account. However, few world leaders are tweeting themselves. Notable exceptions include Estonian President Toomas Henrik Ilves (@IlvesToomas), European Council President @DonaldTusk, Latvian Foreign Minister @EdgarsRinkevics and Norway’s Prime Minister @Erna_Solberg who admitted to suffering from dyslexia and makes the occasional spelling mistake.
• Barack Obama was the first world leader to sign up to Twitter on 5 March 2007 (at the time as Senator Obama) as user #813,286. Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN), Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (@PMHarper) and the U.S. State Department @StateDept are among the early adopters, all having joined later in 2007.
• As of 24 March 2015, all world leaders combined have sent 2,653,876 tweets, posting on average four tweets each day. The Venezuelan presidency (@PresidencialVen) has sent close to 60,000 tweets, averaging more than 41 tweets each day.
• Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto @EPN is the most followed Latin American leader slightly ahead of Colombia’s President @JuanManSantos and Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner @CFKArgentina with well over 3.6 million followers each. Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff @dilmabr and Venezuela’s @NicolasMaduro complete the Latin American top five, with 3.3 and 2.4 million followers respectively.
• The Mexican presidency (@PresidenciaMX) is the most prolific, posting on average 68 tweets each day. The Mexican governmental account (@gobrep) is not far behind with 60 tweets each day. Both institutions often repeat their tweets several times over several days to capture different audiences at different times.
• All 669 accounts combined have an audience of 212,283,753 followers. The median average number of followers is 14,207.
• Quite a few politicians use Twitter only during election campaigns. Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo (@Jokowi_do2) abandoned his 2.7 million Twitter followers once elected in August 2014 as ddi Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet @PrensaMichelle once elected on 11 March 2014.
• Rwanda’s @PaulKagame has become Africa’s most followed president with 842,260 followers ahead of Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta (@UKenyatta).
• Rwanda’s President @PaulKagame is also the most conversational world leader with 86% of his tweets being @replies to other Twitter users.

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To access the complete analysis of these findings, visit: http://twiplomacy.com.   About the Study Data was collected in March 2015 from the accounts of 669 heads of state and government, foreign ministers and their institutions in 166 countries worldwide looking at more than 50 variables using Twitonomy (http://twitonomy.com). Burson-Marsteller used its proprietary Burson Tools to analyze Twitter relations between world leaders. About Burson-Marsteller Burson-Marsteller, established in 1953, is a leading global public relations and communications firm. It provides clients with strategic thinking and program execution across a full range of public relations, public affairs, reputation and crisis management, advertising and digital strategies. The firm’s seamless worldwide network consists of 72 offices and 87 affiliate offices, together operating in 112 countries across six continents. Burson-Marsteller is a part of Young & Rubicam Group, a subsidiary of WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY), the world’s leading communications services network. For more information, please visit bm.com.      

Photography Kungahuset.se On the picture Her Excellency Ambassador Alice Thomas Yusuf Samaan.

On the picture Gilles Tonelli Government Counsellor for External Relations and International Cooperation of the Principality of Monaco.   By Baron Henri Estramant. Former Monégasque ambassador to the Benelux countries, head of mission towards the EU and the OPCW, M Gilles Tonelli (b. 27 November 1957) succeeded M José Badia on 23 February 2015 and became once more member of Monaco’s Princely Government with the post of “Government Counsellor for External Relations and International Cooperation”, or shortly foreign minister.  Tonelli’s main mission shall concentrate in negotiating along with Andorra and San Marino an association agreement with the EU. He shall be seconded by Monaco’s Head of Government, Minister of State Michel Roger.  Gilles Tonelli served in the Princely Government between 2005 and 2006 and 2009 to 2011 as counsellor for equipment, environment and urbanisation. Between 2006 and 2009 he also held the portfolio of finances and economy. He was posted as ambassador in Brussels from 2011 to 2015 when he took over the José Badia.  New ambassador-designate for the Benelux countries and the EU is Madame Sophie Thevenoux, formerly ambassador of Monaco to France and Andorra between June 2011 and February 2015. She is the first Monégasque woman to have been appointed “government counsellor” (equivalent of minister in Monaco) in 2009 with the portfolio of finances and economy. In Paris she is due to be replaced by Madame Claude Cottalorda.   For more information:  Article of M Gilles Tonelli for DM:  https://diplomatmagazine.eu/2015/01/04/15313/ Monégasque External Relations: www.gouv.mc/Action-Gouvernementale/Monaco-a-l-International    

  Four Nobel Prize winners for Peace and WILPF speak out new peace rate as in 1915 , Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Mairead Maguire, Leymah Gbowee and Madeleine Rees.   100 years ago, more than 1,000 women from 12 countries gathered in The Hague there to protest against the First World War and to formulate conditions for a lasting peace. From this historic conference, which Aletta Jacobs was one of the organizers, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) arise. Again in The Hague is WILPF from 27 / m April 29, 2015 at the World Forum in The Hague its 100th anniversary celebration with an international public conference. On April 25, 2015 there will be a bust of Aletta Jacobs to be unveiled at the Peace Palace in The Hague by WILPF Netherlands, as they are – wrongly – was missing. Nobel Prize winner Leymah Gbowee open the conference which – again – hundreds of women from all over the world will be present in as Colombia, Congo, Syria, Libya and Pakistan. Leyman Gbowee is the ultimate example of a woman who managed to stop a war. As a member of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, she will talk about her role and experiences in the Liberian peace movement early 2000. Her initiative to end the war ushered in a period of calm in and made ​​for free elections in 2005, won by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. After her inspiring words followed by more speakers of international stature who are also dedicated to peace, equality and justice. Including the Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Mairead Maguire, Leymah Gbowee and Madeleine Rees as Secretary General of WILPF. And we’re not even talking about the rest of the guests list. Well over 100 speakers dealt with worldwide operations such as peace activists, academics, policy makers, among others from the UN, representatives of nation states, NGOs and experts from conflict. Also there is a market, there are exhibitions, a creativity center, a festival and a public event where the world can not but listen to the new message of peace.   The program for the conference is known and can be found via the link www.womenstopwar.org/conference-home/conference-programme    

More freedom for Member States to decide on the use of GMOs in food and feed Today, the Commission presents the results of its review regarding the decision making process for the authorization of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food and feed. This revision stems from the political guidelines presented to Parliament in July 2014, the grounds for which the current Commission was chosen. The review confirms the need for changes that properly reflect of the views of the general public as well as the need for national governments to have more control and freedom in deciding whether or not to allow use of EU authorized GMOs for consumption by animals (feed) or people (food). With this revision, the Commission proposes to allow Member States more freedom to restrict or ban the use of EU-authorized GMOs for food and feed. Vytenis Andriukaitis, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: “I am pleased to deliver on one of the important commitments taken by this Commission, reviewing the legislation on the decision-making process on GMOs. The Commission has listened to the concerns of many European citizens, reflected in the positions expressed by their national governments. Once adopted, today’s proposal will, fully in line with the principle of subsidiarity, grant Member States a greater say as regards the use of EU- authorised GMOs in food and feed on their respective territories.” The proposal adopted by the Commission today is a strong signal to citizens that Europe takes into account their concerns, concerns which may vary from country to country. The new approach aims at obtaining a balance between maintaining an EU authorization system and the freedom for Member States to make their own decisions about the use of GMOs in their territory. However, since it is of the utmost importance that a single risk management system is maintained – as this ensures an equal level of protection throughout the EU – the authorization system currently implemented, based on science and labelling regulations, will not be changed. What will change is that once a GMO is approved for use in the general public, Member States will be permitted to decide whether or not they wish to allow said GMO in their ecosystems. Member States will have to demonstrate that their opt-out procedures are compatible with European law. This includes the principles of the Internal Market as well as the International Obligations of the EU, as these principles are an integral part of the WTO. Opt-outs will be based on legitimate grounds other than those assessed at EU level, i.e. risk to human or animal health and the environment. This proposal enhances similar rights that the Member States received earlier this month thanks to Directive (EU) 2015/412 recently reached between the European Parliament and the Council. Consequently, the EU now has a consistent set of rules for the authorization of GMOs for cultivation and food and feed, taking into account the individual concerns of Member States. This legislative proposal will now be forwarded to the European Parliament and the Council under the ordinary legislative procedure.

European Commission objects to alleged abuse of power by Gazprom in Central and Eastern Europe. According to the European Commission, Gazprom has been involved in a number of questionable practices in the Central and Eastern European gas markets. The Commission has stated that these practices are in violation of the European Union’s competition rules, leading the Commission to send a Statement of Objections regarding Gazprom’s violations. A study by the Commission shows that Gazprom abused its dominant market position to divide the market in Central and Eastern Europe. Gazprom would prohibit its customers from re-selling gas to other countries in addition to charging unfair prices. Furthermore, the company may have abused its dominant market position by only supplying gas to wholesalers who consented to certain commitments regarding gas-related infrastructure. Currently, Gazprom has 12 weeks to respond to the Statement of Objections. Additionally, they may request a hearing in order to provide a defense against the accusations. The Commission has stated they will fully respect Gazprom’s right of defense. The Commission has also agreed not to pass any decisions until Gazprom has presented their case. The Statement of Objections in no way prejudges or predetermines the final outcome of the investigation. Margrethe Vestager, the Commissioner for competition policy in the EU, has commented, “Gas is an essential commodity in our daily life: it heats our homes, we use it for cooking and to produce electricity. Maintaining fair competition in European gas markets is therefore of utmost importance”. “All companies that operate in the European market – no matter if they are European or not – have to play by our EU rules. I am concerned that Gazprom is breaking EU antitrust rules by abusing its dominant position on EU gas markets. We find that it may have built artificial barriers preventing gas from flowing from certain Central Eastern European countries to others, hindering cross-border competition. Keeping national gas markets separate also allowed Gazprom to charge prices that we at this stage consider to be unfair. If our concerns were confirmed, Gazprom would have to face the legal consequences of its behaviour.” The Commission’s preliminary findings in the Statement of Objections Gazprom is the largest gas supplier in a number of Central and Eastern European countries. Based on its investigation, the Commission believes that Gazprom actively thwarts competition in the gas markets of eight EU countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia. The Commission has discovered significant evidence supporting their claim that Gazprom applies an unfair strategy: For one thing, Gazprom enacts territorial restrictions on wholesalers and industrial customers in the aforementioned countries. These restrictions include export bans which prohibit the countries from exporting Gazprom’s gas, as well as destination clauses which require that the purchased gas only be used in a specific area. On top of this, Gazprom has refused to change the location to which gas is delivered in a number of countries. The Commission has decreed these actions prohibit free trade in the European Economic Area. The aforementioned territorial restrictions often result in higher gas prices. Gazprom is currently engaging in unfair pricing policies in the five EU countries of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Charging wholesalers prices much higher than the costs incurred, Gazprom has abused its power in pursuit of supplemental profits. Gazprom’s utilization of a price index that links their prices to the price of a basket of oil product has massively favored their own economic vitality over that of their customers. There is also ample reason to believe Gazprom is abusing its dominant market power to corner countries into accepting certain commitments and deals if they wish to receive gas. Many gas sales were contingent upon customer investments in a pipeline project promoted by Gazprom or the allowance of Gazprom more control over a pipeline. The Commission provisionally concluded that Gazprom’s practices are an abuse of its dominant market position, prohibited under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). If this is indeed the case, the cross-border sale of gas has been hindered, decreasing the liquidity and efficiency of gas sales. Trade between EU countries has been disrupted due to these artificial barriers resulting in higher gas prices.