The Efficiency of Economic Growth for Sustainable Development—A Grey System Theory Approach in the Eurozone and Other European Countries

Abstract

This article builds upon the authors’ previous work on the Synthetic Efficiency Indicator for Economic Growth (SEI-EG), demonstrating the process of transforming economic-growth-related inputs into sustainable development outcomes. This innovative application of the SEI-EG provides a fresh perspective on the effects of eurozone membership on the sustainability efficiency of EU countries, thereby enriching the discourse on economic integration and sustainability efforts within the European Union. By integrating the economic dynamics of the euro area with environmental efficiency metrics, this study offers novel insights into the potential influence of currency union membership on achieving sustainable development goals. Covering the entire European Union, categorized by euro area and non-euro area membership, this study navigates through the risks to sustainability posed by global crises and the ongoing debate over the euro’s integration success and setbacks. Conducted from 2019 to 2021 using grey system theory, this research incorporates a revised set of seven indicators in the domain of industry, innovation, and infrastructure as recommended by the Europe 2020 project. The findings confirm the initial hypothesis that countries outside the euro area tend to exhibit higher efficiency as measured by the SEI-EG indicator. This article is composed of five parts. The first two parts present characteristic features of economies in the euro area and non-euro area, along with a critical trend in the latest literature on the benefits and risks of economic integration. The subsequent sections introduce the methodology for determining the indicator and the authors’ own corrections to it as well as the results of the research and a discussion.

Sustainable Energy Development and Sustainable Economic Development in EU Countries

“…Despite the relative popularity of this topic, there is currently no research that would analyze these two key areas of sustainable development jointly. There are many studies that examine either sustainable energy development [9,15,17,18,[80][81][82][83] or sustainable economic development [84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92], but none that presents research results regarding both, plus their mutual relationship. Only in selected European Commission documents can one find statements and conclusions indicating that, for example, a long-term interruption in energy supply would have a significant impact on the EU economy [93][94][95].…”

Identification and Analysis of the Key Factors That Influence Power Purchase Agreements on the Road to Sustainable Energy Development

“…Noting the very small percentages regarding the respondents' appreciation of the existence of a developed and highly developed market (12% in the case of sellers and 6% in the case of buyers, respectively) only reinforces the idea presented in the previous paragraph regarding the urgency of taking measures at the state level. At the same time, the adoption of new technologies, including the increase in productivity, will allow for an efficient increase [36]. In this moment, a short comparison between attitude and the level of the PPA market must be made: regarding attitude, even if we can see that this is a positive one, with more than half of the respondents from both the buyer's side (65%) and the seller's side (56%) being open to signing PPAs, this situation must be analysed in relation to the development level of the PPAs market, where, as we can see, the situation is different, with the results being weaker.…”