DIGITAL VOICES OF SUSTAINABILITY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS IN ROMANIA AND BULGARIA

Over the past decade, the concept of sustainability has become a strategic priority in European public policy and within the national frameworks of its Member States. Romania and Bulgaria have incorporated key European strategies such as the European Green Deal, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Renewable Energy Directive, among others, into their national policies. In the era of digitalization, social media has evolved into a central space for expressing public opinion, fostering debate, and enabling civic engagement. This context creates the foundation for a convergence between digital communication and public policy, opening new avenues for interdisciplinary research. This paper presents an innovative analysis of how citizens in Romania and Bulgaria react to public policies through social media platforms-Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. The study is based on both quantitative and qualitative research applied to a sample of 1,230 public posts collected between May 2023 and May 2025. The methodology involved sentiment analysis using automated tools, complemented by manual validation on a calibrated sample. The paper explores how public perceptions of sustainability are shaped within digital environments, the influence of social media platforms in setting the public agenda, and how authorities can use this feedback to design more effective and better-communicated policies. The findings emphasize the growing importance of social media in shaping green transition discourse and propose using these “digital voices” as a legitimate source of public policy feedback. The conclusion is that analyzing civic participation in the digital sphere offers valuable insights into how sustainable policies can be understood, accepted, and promoted across European societies.