CLUSTER ANALYSIS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST EUROPE VIA SELECTED INDICATORS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Central and South East Europe can be seen as a relatively homogeneous grouping of countries, particularly in comparison with countries of Western Europe. A similar political and social development in the past was reflected in similar problems, and their solutions. In the present paper we analyze the status and development of the sustainable development of these countries via selected global indicators of sustainability. We monitor the changes of sustainability indicators that occur over time and their impact on changes in countries' similarity. For that purpose, the cluster analysis procedures have been applied. In the paper we analyze whether the changes in the economic, social, environmental and institutional areas led to changes in particular countries' similarity, respectively how changes in the indicators analyzed have reflected in the change in clusters of countries' similarity during approximately 12 year period.