Measuring the sustainability of economic development in the EU countries; a comparative analysis of the existing tools

This article aims to analyze and compare the existing tools for measuring the sustainability of economic development in EU countries. The primary method of empirical data processing in the framework of this study is a comparative analysis of the ranks of EU countries by new measurement tools in relation to the traditional ones, GDP and HDI). Sources of empirical data are analytical reports of international organizations, international statistical information from various institutions, open-access databases, and individual researchers' publications. The results of a comparison of the ranks of EU countries by GDP, HDI, Green GDP, Sustainable Development Goals Index (SDG Index), Green Economy Index (GEI), Green Growth Index (GGI), Sustainable Development Green Index (SDGI) show that basically, the ranks of each specific country within all ratings analyzed in this study are similar. Still, there are some exceptions (for example, Luxembourg). Given these results, developing multiple 'green' indices instead of one traditional GDP from a practical point of view seems completely unjustified and unnecessary. However, the author believes that the main driving force behind individual researchers and entire organizations' search for new tools is the real need for more comprehensive and multidimensional approaches to measuring economic progress and sustainable development. The many proposed tools for measuring the sustainability of territorial development provide a broader picture. It is unlikely that one instrument is most suitable for measuring the sustainability of economic development of the EU countries since each of them allows evaluating the sustainability of development (both economic and general) from its unique discourse.