Effectiveness of EU funds to sustainability in Central Eastern European Countries

Abstract

This research aims to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of the European Union funds. To do so, ten countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have been selected to study the correlation between funds given to them and some parameters, such as Happy Planet Index, wellbeing, carbon footprint, and inequality. Following the methodology done by Kranjac et al. (2017), with data from 2014, the same analysis will be done with updated data. This will allow us to compare the results from 2014 and 2019, providing a progress report on the effectiveness of EU funds. The results found for 2019 are similar to 2014, the funds given are not achieving the desired outcomes. When the amount of paid grants per capita increases, the Happy Planet Index, the main indicator of sustainable development, decreases. The same relation occurs with CO2 emissions. Instead of reducing the number of emissions of a country, the higher the grants given, the higher the CO2 emissions. It is concluded that these CEE countries cannot effectively use and absorb the grants given, and a different approach should be carried out.