Assessment of sustainable development in selected countries of Southeast Europe

The purpose of this article is to examine the possibilities of sustainable development, as well as to assess the impact of certain environmental predictors on the real GDP increase of eight selected countries of Southeast Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia) in the period from 2001 to 2020. Using the Least Squares Dummy Variable (LSDV) panel data method, the article shows that from the aspect of access to safely managed sanitation services, use of renewables and harmful CO2 emissions, economic development in these countries is not sustainable enough. At the same time, it is sustainable only from the perspective of agricultural methane emissions. Bearing this in mind, economic policy makers from these countries should work more intensively on intra-regional cooperation, as well as on complying with the recommendations from the SEE 2030 Strategy in guiding their countries towards sustainable development pathways.