Rural Sustainability in Bulgaria: Multi-Criteria Analysis

Sustainable development is essential for long-term evolution of the society as a whole, considering the future generation as well. It is a key concept of the 21st century reflecting the present and the future of humanity. Within the European Union, it is of primary interest and a fundamental goal. Currently, the European Green Deal serves as a strategic framework for the transition and policy development to accomplish this goal. It recognizes rural areas as important to contribute in terms of land use, biodiversity conservation, economic activity, and prosperity of society. Rural areas are important as a main source of supplies and resources for the society and as a space for living and working. The current challenges, such as economic crises, depopulation, and climate change, may limit their sustainable development. The active rural development policy and its growing role within the European policies supports the processes of adaptation and transformation towards the sustainability goals. Addressing these challenges requires a comprehensive approach as achieving sustainability requires considering the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of rural development. It means to consider a range of social, economic, and environmental factors and their interrelationships in order to identify and prioritize sustainable development options for rural areas. Therefore, the multiple criteria analysis of the various aspects of rural development, taking into account different sustainability indicators is a required precondition. This paper assesses rural areas sustainability in Bulgaria based on the multi-criteria analysis exploring the time-related changes of the available Sustainable Development Indicators and comparing them to the observed indicators at the European level. The findings indicate progress in some aspects (ecological based on the analysis of greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions from agriculture). The study also identified serious barriers in economic and social dimensions analysing the performance of rural economy, the developments in business structures, employment and unemployment rates, and the rural demography (population, migrations and at-risk-of-poverty rate). The paper concludes with recommendations for promoting sustainable development that enhance economic opportunities and improve social demography. Keywords: sustainable development, environmental sustainability, social sustainability, economic sustainability, sustainable development indicators JEL code: Q01, R51, O18