<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Economic growth and competitiveness are usually analysed at the level of the national economy in traditional economic research. The problem of competitiveness within this line of thought is mainly regarded from the perspective of determining the sources of sustainable growth, which makes the economy more competitive than others. Competitiveness, therefore, is a multidimensional concept, which includes a range of factors, such as institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, market, human capital and technological development. Also, the process of joining the European Union significantly stimulates the development of the exact categories that are relevant for acceleration of the economic development. The aim of the paper is to assess the competitiveness of the candidate or potential candidate countries for membership in the European Union, through a comparative analysis of their competitiveness vis-à-vis EU countries. The results indicate that the competitiveness of the EU 15 countries, measured by Global Competitiveness Index and GDP per capita, is statistically significantly higher than the competitiveness of EU country group enlarged in the period 2004-2013, also compared to EU candidate or potential candidate countries. However, when it comes to the pillar of competitiveness related to the macroeconomic environment, according to the latest Global Competitiveness Report (2017-2018), the scores of the EU countries associated with enlargements in the period 2004-2013 are statistically significantly better than the EU 15 countries.</p></abstract>

Economic growth and competitiveness are usually analysed at the level of the national economy in traditional economic research. The problem of competitiveness within this line of thought is mainly regarded from the perspective of determining the sources of sustainable growth, which makes the economy more competitive than others. Competitiveness, therefore, is a multidimensional concept, which includes a range of factors, such as institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, market, human capital and technological development. Also, the process of joining the European Union significantly stimulates the development of the exact categories that are relevant for acceleration of the economic development. The aim of the paper is to assess the competitiveness of the candidate or potential candidate countries for membership in the European Union, through a comparative analysis of their competitiveness vis-à-vis EU countries. The results indicate that the competitiveness of the EU 15 countries, measured by Global Competitiveness Index and GDP per capita, is statistically significantly higher than the competitiveness of EU country group enlarged in the period 2004-2013, also compared to EU candidate or potential candidate countries. However, when it comes to the pillar of competitiveness related to the macroeconomic environment, according to the latest Global Competitiveness Report (2017-2018), the scores of the EU countries associated with enlargements in the period 2004-2013 are statistically significantly better than the EU 15 countries.

Competitiveness and the EU Accession Process: Can Candidate Countries Become Competitive as EU Countries?

Economic Themes

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Economic growth and competitiveness are usually analysed at the level of the national economy in traditional economic research. The problem of competitiveness...

Competitiveness and the EU Accession Process: Can Candidate Countries Become Competitive as EU Countries?

Published Online: Apr 09, 2020

Page range: 415 - 432

Received: Dec 17, 2019

Accepted: Jan 09, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ethemes-2019-0024

Keywords
National competitiveness, European Union, accession process, candidate countries, statistical analysis

© 2019 Jelena J. Stanković et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Competitiveness and the EU Accession Process: Can Candidate Countries Become Competitive as EU Countries?

Published Online: Apr 09, 2020

Page range: 415 - 432

Received: Dec 17, 2019

Accepted: Jan 09, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ethemes-2019-0024

KeywordsNational competitiveness, European Union, accession process, candidate countries, statistical analysis

© 2019 Jelena J. Stanković et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
National competitiveness, European Union, accession process, candidate countries, statistical analysis