Brussels has entered the age of the influencer. The 10th #EUinfluencer Ranking shows where they live.
104 of the 153 people ranked have real reach on one platform only, and just two on four. LinkedIn now carries the EU policy conversation, Instagram and TikTok the political one, and the institutions have started inviting creators in. Alberto Alemanno tops LinkedIn for the second year running.
Brussels, 22 September 2026
The EU conversation has split into five rooms, and almost nobody is in more than one. That is the headline finding of the 10th edition of the #EUinfluencer Ranking, unveiled on Friday 18 September at Cardo Brussels before an audience of journalists, creators, policy professionals and EU officials. Of the 153 people ranked across LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, Instagram and TikTok, 104 have real reach on a single platform.
For anyone trying to shape what Europe decides, the implication is practical: an influencer strategy can no longer be single-platform, and a campaign that leaves creators out is a campaign with a hole in it.
Produced by Brussels digital communications agency ZN every year since 2017, the ranking is the only continuous record of who shapes the EU conversation online. Ten years ago it measured one platform. In 2026 it draws three main conclusions: LinkedIn has become the place where EU policy is discussed; Instagram and TikTok are where a new generation of voices reaches citizens the institutions cannot; and the institutions themselves have begun formally courting the creators who lead them.
Key findings
- LinkedIn is where EU policy is discussed now. 100 people are ranked, more than half of them heads of associations, companies or NGOs, with six Directors General in the top ten alone. Journalists make up 13% of the list, and 40% of those ranked are women.
- X has narrowed into a geopolitics wire. Half of the 55 people ranked are journalists, and 39 of the 55 cover foreign affairs or trade. Three quarters are men.
- Bluesky has the journalists but not the conversation. It has the highest share of reporters of any platform tracked and the smallest qualifying pool, 39 voices this year.
- Instagram and TikTok are where the new voices live. The lists are short, young and gender balanced, led by climate activist Chloe Mikolajczak (111,000 followers) on Instagram and DW’s Johanna Rüdiger on TikTok. The second-ranked Instagram voice, Sevim Aktas, works inside the European Commission and is ranked on her personal account.
- Threads and Mastodon no longer have enough EU policy voices to rank and move to honorable mentions. YouTube was analysed for the first time.
- A new “Communication Voices” category recognises 25 communicators who shape how the profession itself works.
The institutions have arrived
The 2026 edition landed in the week the European Commission welcomed content creators to the State of the Union in Strasbourg, two months after the Council of the EU opened parts of its headquarters to creators, and following the Commission’s enlistment of 50 creators for its “Protect What Matters” campaign and the European Parliament’s Content Creators Summit.
The audience at Cardo confirmed the shift from the other side. A show of hands found that roughly a third had worked with an influencer in the past twelve months and more intend to, that around 80% now use LinkedIn as their main channel for the EU conversation against 5% for X and 10 to 15% for Instagram and TikTok, and that half already use AI to write. The few who never do were mostly journalists.
Quotes
Phil Weiss, founder and CEO of ZN and creator of the ranking:
“Ten years ago we started ranking a small group of Twitter nerds who met in a pub. On Friday we ranked the people the European Commission now invites to its State of the Union. Brussels has finally woken up to the age of the influencer, whether it likes it or not, and AI is making that stronger, not weaker. The more of the internet is written by nobody, the more people go looking for somebody they can trust.”
Méabh Mc Mahon, Chief Anchor, Euronews, speaking on the “State of Influence” panel:
“This week in Strasbourg we saw hundreds of influencers getting really close access to President von der Leyen. When was the last time she gave an interview to a media outlet? Influencers are probably the future. I am an endangered species.”
Kait Bolongaro, Senior Editor, The Capitol Forum, and former Managing Editor for Europe at MLex:
“When I ran a newsroom in Brussels, one of our rules was LinkedIn first: get out there, build an expertise. That reinforced the trust in their reporting, because they got visibility for knowing a topic well. It is the same mechanism you see with influencers.”
Julius Fintelmann, founder, The European Correspondent, speaking on the “New Voices” panel:
“Reader surveys over decades say the one thing people want from journalism is less bad news. Media has not served that. Content creators are doing better because they are relatable, and they manage to show people they are not alone.”
Karen Massin, Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy, EU Institutions, Google, speaking on the “Future of Influence” panel:
“I use LinkedIn because it has become the digital town hall. It allows me to actually speak to my community.”
Platform and topic leaders, 2026
- LinkedIn: 1. Alberto Alemanno, 2. Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl (DIGITALEUROPE), 3. Robin Wauters
- X: 1. Tony Connelly (RTÉ), 2. Jeremy Cliffe, 3. Javier Blas (Bloomberg)
- Bluesky: 1. Steve Peers, 2. Alan Beattie (Financial Times), 3. Finbarr Bermingham
- Instagram: 1. Chloe Mikolajczak, 2. Sevim Aktas, 3. Olivia Lori
- TikTok: 1. Johanna Rüdiger (DW), 2. Olivia Lori, 3. Carolin Isabel Hochstrat
- Topic leaders include Andrew Bounds (Economy & Trade), Camille Grand (Foreign Affairs), Claire Skentelbery (Healthcare), Andrea Renda (Artificial Intelligence), Walburga Hemetsberger (Energy & Sustainability), Jon Worth (Travel & Tourism), Claudio Francavilla (Democracy & Human Rights), Alan Matthews (Agrifood), Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl (Technology & Digital) and Remco Timmermans (Aerospace).
The full rankings and the long-read article “Welcome to the Age of the Influencer” include more details.
Notes to editors
The #EUinfluencer Ranking has been produced annually by ZN since 2017. Scores combine measurable metrics (reach, engagement, activity) with qualitative assessment of EU-bubble relevance, topic and channel fit. Politicians and official institutional accounts are excluded. The 2026 event was hosted by Cardo Brussels with the support of AVS, Best in Brussels and visit.brussels. Three panels featured Kait Bolongaro (The Capitol Forum), Méabh Mc Mahon (Euronews), Kaj Embrén, Julius Fintelmann (The European Correspondent), Otilia Colceriu (EU and U), Olivia Lori, Michiel van Hulten, Karen Massin (Google) and Francesco Piccinelli Casagrande (MEP Analytics). Panellists spoke in a personal capacity. The full recording is available on ZN’s YouTube channel.
About ZN
ZN is a Brussels-based digital communications and public affairs agency founded in 1998. It helps EU institutions, associations and companies map, measure and engage the voices that shape European policy. www.znconsulting.com
Media contact
Gaia Gambaro, ZN, gaia.g@znconsulting.com, +39 3200506844
