Sustainable Development in the European Union in the Years 2004–2013

Implementation of sustainable development strategies is a policy prerequisite for all the European Union countries, which is a result of agreement to realization of such documents as Europe 2020 plan and other more specific international obligations such as agreements on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, the progress in creating the conditions for sustainable development achieved by all of the European Union member states should be constantly monitored. The international comparisons in the field should be made with the use of quantitative methods. Thus, the purpose of the research is to examine the progress achieved by European countries in implementing the concept of sustainable development. Special attention was given to the new member states that joined the EU after the year 2004. The research is conducted with the application of the Eurostat data at a macroeconomic level. It is assumed that sustainable development should be treated as a multivariate latent variable. Thus, it can be measured with the application of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) methodology that includes confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis used in econometrics. In the article, a hypothetical SEM model for the years 2004–2013 was proposed. The model was based on nine observable variables suggested by the Eurostat for measuring sustainable development phenomena at a national level. The application of the SEM model enabled us to identify the usefulness of the observable variables proposed by the Eurostat. The conducted research showed that the new European Union member states have made significant progress in the field of building conditions for sustainable development.