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COMPOSITE INDEX OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF EU COUNTRIES' ECONOMIES (ISDE-EU)
Ciprian Ionel Turturean, Laura Anca Asandului, Ciprian Chirila, Daniel Homocianu

ABSTRACT. The concept of sustainable development is gaining more and more field in national economies. At a global level it has been concluded that economic development in the absence of any concern related to the regeneration, preservation and protection of natural resources and the environment for future generations is not healthy and can have disastrous consequences in the long run. That is why, at EU level, there have been continuing concerns for sustainable economic development since as early as 2006. Increasing concerns over sustainable development as a goal for European society and economy have led to search for adequate indicators to measure it. Within this context, based on statistical indicators that reflect the intensity of the determinants, we propose to construct a composite index that reflects the extent to which the concept of sustainable development is assimilated by the economies of the EU countries. The composite index comprises over 140 sustainable development indicators structured along the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. On the basis of this index, we ranked and compared EU countries according to the degree of implementation of the sustainable economic development in the national economies of the EU countries.

KEYWORDS:  composite index, sustainable development, EU countries.

JEL classification:  C43, F63, Q01, Q56, R11.