In today’s turbulent world influenced by globalization, knowledge is becoming a key factor in the market. Every economy, if it wants to be successful and competitive, must pay more attention to knowledge and its creation, transfer, and preservation. In this respect, it is a key element in ensuring a country’s sustainable position in a competitive environment. Based on this, we set out the main idea of the article as follows: increased emphasis on the factors of a knowledge-based economy affects the growth of the country’s competitiveness, which contributes to its better sustainability. To verify the idea, we used a multi-criteria evaluation of countries by the TOPSIS method and a subsequent regression model. We examined developments in the EU countries over a period of 11 years in selected indicators typical for the knowledge economies, in the area of competitiveness. Finally, we examined the sustainability of EU countries. Based on the findings of these methods, we identified the leading country—Sweden—in the field of knowledge economy, competitiveness, and sustainability.

The Europe 2020 Strategy was proposed with a long-term vision to ensure prosperity, development, and competitiveness for the member countries. This strategy is divided into three main areas named “growth”. One of these is sustainable growth. This is an area of sustainability, where the partial targets are referred to as the “20-20-20 approach”, and includes a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, an increase in energy efficiency, and the sharing of renewable energy sources. However, questions arise, including: How do member states meet these targets? Which countries are leaders in this area? According to these stated questions, the aim of this article is to assess how EU countries are meeting the set targets for sustainable growth resulting from the Europe 2020 strategy and to identify the countries with the best results in this area. We looked for answers to these questions in the analysis of sustainable indicators, which were transformed into a synthetic measure for comparability of the resulting values. Finally, we identified the Baltic states, Nordic countries (European Union members), Romania, and Croatia as the best countries in fulfilling the sustainable growth aims. As sustainable development and resource efficiency are crucial areas for the future, it is important to consider these issues.

An increasing population and increasing industrial demand for resources has created a need to ensure the supply can keep up. With sustainable development on the agenda, the European Union established the strategy 2030 Agenda with set goals to fulfil. Some of those are connected to the principles of the circular economy. This study aimed to identify the state of the circular economy based on the current level of waste management in the agricultural sector of EU27 countries in the context of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The main focus was on the 12th goal of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, for which countries are analyzed according to five indicators. The results showed heterogeneity between EU countries, and while we analyzed this in relation to countries’ GDP, no relationship between the agricultural waste management and GDP was found. To confirm and develop the results obtained, we outline possibilities for future research and methodological improvements that will support more robust conclusions, such as expanding the research sample.

Digital skills represent a key dimension of digital transformation, shaping the innovation potential, competitiveness, and long-term sustainability of the European economy. The aim of this paper is to compare the development of digital skills in EU-27 countries from 2018 to 2024 and identify the strengths and weaknesses within the European context. The analysis is based on secondary data from the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI). From the total of 36 indicators included in DESI, 12 variables were selected, with an emphasis on 3 core digital-skills metrics: Internet use, ICT specialists, and ICT graduates. To assess their interrelationships and linkages with overall digital transformation performance, non-parametric correlation analyses (Kendall’s Tau and Spearman’s rank correlation) were applied. Furthermore, across-year nonparametric tests (Friedman ANOVA with Kendall’s coefficient of concordance, W) were used to evaluate year-to-year differences and the stability of country rankings over 2018–2024. The empirical results confirmed that higher levels of digital skills are associated with stronger digital transformation performance among EU member states, while significant cross-country disparities persist. Germany and the Nordic economies (Finland, Sweden, and Denmark) achieved the best results, while Southern and Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria, Portugal, and Greece lagged behind. These findings highlight the strategic role of digital education, ICT specialization, and lifelong learning initiatives in promoting sustainable digital transformation and competitiveness across Europe. In addition, panel regression analysis confirmed that digital infrastructure, particularly FTTP coverage and Very High Capacity Networks, is a key driver of digital skills development, whereas the effects of business digitalization appear indirect or delayed. The outcomes provide relevant implications for broadband deployment and user-centric digital public services to support the objectives of the EU Digital Decade 2030. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the determinants of digital skills and digital transformation performance, providing evidence-based guidance for targeted digital policies aimed at reducing the digital divide and strengthening digital transformation performance within the European Union.

Global tendencies and movements in the world are great challenges and also important opportunities for individual economies. Globalization of the markets and the internationalization of the production present the most significant features of the world economic development during the last decades. Globalization impacts have changed the rules of the world competition. Global strategy is based on the search of the balance between the local adaptation and global standardization. Globalization as an economic phenomenon have affected significantly the growth of the international trade. Growth of the international trade has been influenced by many factors followed-up on globalization, such as the development of the technology, governments decisions, institutions activities, consumers behaviour, increasing competition, new trade agreements, etc. The aim of the proposed Paper is to analyse chosen factors concerning the globalization process that have influenced the growth of international trade of the Slovak Republic. By using scientific-cognitive methods, i.e. issue analysis, gained data synthesis, comparison and deduction chosen factors influencing the international trade of the Slovak Republic were reviewed. We have focused on the last decade – the time priod after the entry of the Slovak Republic into the European Union. Based on the results, we can state that there is a place for an improvement in all searched fields considering the strategic location of the Slovak Republic - in the center of Europe

Background: The global digital economy is developing quickly, and innovation plays a crucial role in today's economic growth. Aims: The main aim was to investigate the interrelationships between the digital and innovation performance of the EU countries using the selected global indices (DESI, GII, SII). The main aim was fulfilled by 2 partial goals and subsequently set 2 hypotheses. Methods: To verify the hypotheses, we used the Kendall Tau coefficient (τ), panel data regression analysis and through this analysis, we created 3 models. Sample: We have chosen the EU-27 countries for our analyses. The length of the analyzed period was 5 years (2016-2020). Results: To select the resulting model from the 3 proposed models (Model 1 (OLS), Model 2 (FEM), and Model 3 (REM)), test criteria such as F-test, Breusch-Pagan test, and Hausman test were used. We consider Model 2 to be the most suitable model, which is the result of the Fixed Effects Model (FEM). Conclusions: The results of our analyses confirmed that a higher statistically significant positive relationship was identified between the digital performance of the EU-27 countries and their innovation performance evaluated using the SII versus the innovation performance using the GII.