The aim of this article is to analyse all elements of sustainable
development, especially in the context of the new enlargement policy for the
Balkan countries. Basically, the analysis is based on the concept from
Agenda 2030. The second concept consists of two methodologies for EU
accession, where the criteria are grouped through chapters (old methodology)
and clusters (new methodology). The research question in this paper is
whether the new EU accession methodology is a guarantee for achieving better
values of indicators of sustainable development or not. Multicriteria
decision analysis (MCDA), more precisely the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP
method), is used to prioritize sustainable development criteria based on the
sustainable development indicators through two different concepts. The
results of the analysis showed that the achievement of the SDGs according to
the Agenda 2030 was established methodologically by country, while
respecting the specificities of countries and their policies. Also, the
results showed that the acceptance of the new methodology, that is,
organizing the chapters into clusters and accordingly regrouping the
indicators, showed better results. The conclusions from this article can be
applied in making decisions about choosing the best approach to sustainable
development for individual countries.