For the European Union, innovation and entrepreneurship are strong vectors to overcome global societal challenges from climate change and sustainable energy to food and healthy living. Innovation is a facilitator of entrepreneurship and a way of empowering people to take charge of their lives and economic prosperity. At the same time, entrepreneurship is the answer to innovation, the concepts of innovation and entrepreneurship being undeniably interrelated. This research proposes assessing the potential for innovation and entrepreneurship in EU countries in the context of sustainable development. With the help of hierarchical clustering analysis, EU countries were classified into four relevant clusters on the basis of the variables considered, which allowed the identification of common features and existing differences. The research was conducted using data provided by the Global Innovation Index, Global Entrepreneurship Index, Eurostat database, and Candriam ESG Country Report at the level of the 27 EU countries. The main results revealed high-performing countries in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship potential, providing relevant information for policy-makers, business practitioners, NGOs, and academics on the direction they need to take for good practice models to be adapted and implemented in countries with sub-optimal performance, to provide them with support for improvement of their innovation and entrepreneurship potential.

Reducing inequalities within and among countries is one of the main tenets of the sustainable development paradigm and has become an important pillar at the European Union level. By adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, EU countries have committed themselves to meet targets against which progress in reducing inequalities can be measured. Through the present research, we aim to analyze and assess the extent to which EU countries will achieve the specific SDG 10 targets. Based on data published by Eurostat for the period 2010–2020, we forecast the trends of the indicators until the year 2030, using a model based on the AAA (Holt–Winters) version of exponential smoothing (ETS), to assess the degree to which the assumed targets will be reached. For more detailed information, we used dynamic indices to analyze the dynamics of the progress achieved. The results showed that it is difficult to clearly distinguish one or more countries as part of a group of high or low performers in terms of the efforts made and the effects achieved in reducing inequalities. However, we could mention Poland as a good and very good performer on most of the indicators analyzed. As opposite examples, we can mention Bulgaria and Greece, for which more attention and involvement are needed in adopting measures to correct the negative trend forecast.

In response to climate change that threatens both economic and social sustainable development, governments adopt strict environmental policy measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and encourage the use of energy from renewable sources. The main purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent the strictness of environmental policy can influence the level of greenhouse gas emissions and the consumption of renewable energy in selected Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) method and Granger causality test were employed in order to investigate the long-run relationship between the main components of the environmental policy stringency index and the evolution of greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy consumption. The results indicate significant influences of the Market-based instruments sub-index and the Technology Support policies sub-index on greenhouse gas emissions reduction, while the Non-Market Based instruments index, which includes policies that impose emission limits and standards, does not exert any significant influence in this regard. Regarding the impact on renewable energy consumption, the results of this study indicate significant positive influences from the perspective of the three sub-indices used in the analysis. These results should send a signal to decision-makers on the effectiveness of policies that impose emission limits and standards, in the sense that their improvement will generate significant influences in mitigating climate change risks.

The development of the bioeconomy on regional and national levels is heavily reliant on the establishment of precise and efficient governance frameworks. These structures encompass a wide range of components, spanning from financial support to regulatory tools and limitations. These mechanisms play a pivotal role in addressing the challenges that emerge during the bioeconomy’s growth. In this context, the necessity for continuous research to underpin and guide bioeconomy policies, while also bridging existing knowledge gaps, is glaringly evident. The current study brings a new perspective, using hierarchical cluster analysis as an exploratory approach and a technique for generating hypotheses. Its aim is to assess the progress of EU countries concerning the bioeconomy, including sectors involved in biomass production and conversion. The research draws on data published by the European Commission and Eurostat for the years 2015 and 2020, to capture the changes brought about by the adoption of the 2030 Agenda. The research findings furnish valuable insights into advancements in the bioeconomy and the clustering of countries based on their performance levels. Notably, Belgium and Denmark emerge as standout performers, potentially offering exemplary models of best practices.

According to the objective of achieving "an intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth" in the European Union (EU) 2020 agenda, the information disclosure regarding sustainability of large companies mainly aims to contribute to the potential of the single market, thus creating sustainable development and employment levels. It is very important for companies to increase their transparency for interested parties, improve their risk management and provide better results. High transparency, including the diversity of management bodies, determines the trust growth of people in companies and markets, and allows more efficient capital distribution and the possibility of making a more realistic decision (e.g., by investors) according to available information. For current challenges, such as global warming, effects of the consumption society on environment, emphasis of disparities, worsening of environmental problems and urbanization of population, related replied have been made, representing that more efforts have been made for the transition towards a green model and for meeting the sustainable development objectives. Significant steps have been taken in this direction, but greater efforts should be made. The new economic system should rely on sustainable development, which is the solution to overcome current social, environmental and economic problems. Non-financial reporting is just a tool. In order to add value, companies should use the tool to contribute more, thus being closer to the global initiatives related to the green economy and building a sustainable society. Increase of these global trends has a significant impact on business environment, leading to measures taken immediately. Therefore, the true benefits of non-financial reporting will not be noticed unless entities change their focus from strict evaluation of financial performance to non-financial elements and integrate sustainability in their business model. Meanwhile, companies should focus on reporting the aspects, which are significant for them, the interested parties and the investors, and ensure that all these aspects are communicated to the management. Analysis of the non-financial information, presented by the active entities in the field of electrical energy production in Romania between 2017-2020, showed that only six companies met the legal requirements of non-financial information disclosure, which are state-owned companies with full or majority state capital and state-owned companies/societies.

Starting from the statistics and the realities of the labor market in Romania and to obtain a wider perspective regarding the social, economic, and demographic implications of the work force mobility we used the results from a previous research, carried out through a questionnaire which was distributed online. The previous research (Cojocaru 2020) underlying this article, was performed on a sample of 157 persons giving valid answers, from a total of 183 filled questionnaires, representing 85,8% compliance degree. The subjects are aged between 18 and 60 years and belong to the various socio-professional categories. Therefore, starting from the answers of the interviewed people from this investigation carried out with the help of the online questionnaire, for a more detailed analysis of the expectations of the Romanian emigrant, we decided to use the binomial ordinal logistic regression model, with cumulated probabilities, based on the proportionality of chances (cumulated logit model). This research is structured and published in two parts, the first part including the introduction, the presentation of the research methodology. Results and discussions (the analysis of the variable change income and the analysis of the variable qualification), and the second part results and discussions (the analysis of the variable labor conditions, the analysis of the variable duration and the analysis of the variable satisfaction) and conclusions.Copyright© 2020 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.