Evaluation of the Efficiency of Sustainable Development Policy Implementation in Selected EU Member States Using DEA. The Ecological Dimension

Since the ‘Earth Summit’ in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, the concept of sustainable development has been widely discussed and implemented globally. This paper proposes a quantitative tool, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), that can support decision makers in assessing the efficiency of implementation of the sustainable development policy. The example of such analysis is presented by assessing the efficiency of implementation of the sustainable development policy of twenty two European Union Member States in 2005–2015. DEA (and more specifically the Slack-Based Measure) showed an improvement in the efficiency of most of the Member States in 2015 as compared to the results achieved in 2005. This outcome sent a positive and motivating signal for the continuation of activities in the area of sustainable development implementation. The method used in the study also has determined the weak areas that still exist in inefficient countries and indicated the action that should be taken to improve their efficiency. DEA enables an objective comparison of the results measured using this method and may therefore be considered by EU Member States as well as other organizations, including local governments responsible for the implementation of a sustainable development policy as a useful tool facilitating an objective assessment of the effects of their work.