Assessment of progress towards "Europe 2020" strategy targets by using the MULTIMOORA method and the Shannon Entropy Index

Through the implementation of the "Europe 2020" strategy, the European Union (EU) strives to ensure sustainable growth and development by 2020, improve its competitive position in the global market and become one of the most dynamic knowledge-based economies worldwide. Having in mind the fact that the year 2020 is approaching, some important questions arising and need to be addressed. Which Member States are the best and which are the worst performers in the implementation of the "Europe 2020" strategy? How can they be classified according to the progress they have made in the strategy implementation? In which strategic priorities is the gap amongst Member States high and in which is the state relatively uniform? In order to address these questions, a multi-objective decision-making approach is used for the ranking and classification of the EU countries according to the progress achieved in the implementation of the strategy. The weights of the considered criteria are calculated objectively by applying the entropy method. The entropy method is also used for the calculation of the Shannon Entropy Index, which measures the inequality in the performances of the Member States in each strategic priority. The obtained results pointed out the Sweden, Denmark and Austria are the best performers in strategy implementation. Among EU-15, Finland and France were also positioned relatively high in the rankings. On the other hand, some new Member States achieved significant progress in the strategy implementation and over performed some old Member States, like Lithuania, Slovenia, Croatia and Czech Republic, so they joined group of Core countries. In contrast to them, Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, and Romania have an unfavorable position in the final ranking, for which reason they are classified into the group of the Peripheral countries. So, these countries should make considerable effort in the future to achieve their national targets in most of strategy priorities and contribute to full implementation of the strategy at the EU level. Regarding the progress in strategic priorities, the values of the Shannon Entropy Index indicated that relatively higher differences among the EU countries still exist in the development of renewable energy production and investments in research and development (R&D). These priorities are very important for achieving smart and sustainable growth and reducing the gap among Member States in mentioned priorities require, before all, higher investments. So, some additional funds should be allocated for these purposes to countries which significantly lagging behind in reaching their national targets in these priorities. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.