Study of spatial uniformity of sustainable development of the European Union before, during and after the economic crisis

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is study of spatial uniformity in the field of sustainable development of European Union and geographical regions of Europe analyzed by the prism of EU countries located in this regions before, during and after the economic crisis from 2007–2008. Material and methods The analysis of similarities and differences between the EU Member States countries or in the case of geographic regions of Europe has been based on sustainable development indicators published by Eurostat. To the final set of diagnostic features, the 22 indicators have been selected. To study the spatial differentiation of sustainable development the taxonomic measure of development based on median vector Weber as well vector calculus were used. The impact of the economic crisis is particularly obvious in the Southern and Eastern European Union countries. The position of the Southern countries, that failed to cope with the world economic and financial crisis, deteriorated and they fell into the group at the lowest level of development. The results obtained in this study can be used in subsequent years to examine the direction of changes in sustainable development levels observed both from the point of view of the EU Member States and geographical regions.