Centre–Periphery in the EU-20: a classification based on factor analysis and cluster analysis

One of the main targets of the European Union (EU) is the achievement of economic convergence among its member states. However, economic and social differences have not been diminishing. Over the past decade, asymmetries have become more obvious and use of the expression ‘European periphery’ has increased significantly. The ambiguity around this term has led to the development of a classification based on the Latin American Structuralist School and Dependency Theory, adapting these approaches to the European economies at present. Through factor analysis, we obtain a rigorous and consistent classification of a representative group of European countries, the EU-20, which allows us to identify the most relevant asymmetries between two clusters: the centre and the periphery. Moreover, analysis over time, examining data from 1995 to 2014, enables us to detect important changes in these classifications as well as the composition of the two clusters.