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Article

Open Access

European Countries Socio-Economic Development in the Context of Europe 2020 Strategy

Author(s)

Maria Klonowska-Matynia

Full-Text PDF Download XML 1629 Views

DOI:10.17265/1537-1514/2015.08.001

Affiliation(s)

Maria Klonowska-Matynia, Ph.D., Koszalin University of Technology, Koszalin, Poland.

ABSTRACT

This article discusses important and current issues of EU countries socio-economic development in the context of the “Europe 2020 Strategy” (a strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth). The main objective of this article is to prepare hierarchy and classification of the EU countries, showing the degree of core indicators implemented as described in the framework of the “Europe 2020 Strategy”. The author attempts to isolate groups of the EU countries which present similar development levels on the basis of accepted development indicators. It attempts to determine: (1) the level of socio-economic development EU countries (based on synthetic indicator); (2) trends in changing of socio-economic development level EU countries; and (3) the main factors determining the level of socio-economic development level EU countries. Based on estimated indicators, the following assumptions were verified: The development distance among EU countries has steadily decreased and the economical factors are the most strongly determining factors of sustainable development. Selected methods of multivariable objects hierarchy and classification have been used in the study. In order to measure the level of socio-economic development of the EU countries, linear ordering has been applied, based on the standardized sums method. As a result, a relative level indicator of development has been assigned to each country. The classification of the EU countries has been made mainly according to the Ward hierarchical agglomeration procedure. Thus, groups of countries appeared have been similar in terms of analyzed characteristics. It allowed an attempt to determine basic features of these countries’ groups in terms of factors determining their development. Analysis will be carried out in spatial and time dimension as a part of the research. The subject of spatial analysis will be the EU countries (including Norway and Croatia), in particular their socio-economic development indicators as described in the “Europe 2020 Strategy” framework. The time range of the study includes 2004 and 2014. Eurostat has been the main data source. Based on three pillars (social, economic, and environmental), it is concluded that the development gap among European countries has reduced, though the average level of development is slightly increasing in Europe. The catching-up process of development by the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, among which the leader is Poland, can be visibly observed. It turned out that as many as three of the five traits under examination (two of them economic pillars and one of the society pillars) are comparatively strong, this explains the value of the development index, as the environmental and educational component has proven to be of less significance.

KEYWORDS

socio-economic development, Europe 2020 Strategy, hierarchy, classification, European countries, Ward procedure

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