In the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, by adopting the EU Renewable Energy Directive and the European Green Deal, the European Union aims at an extremely ambitious goal to become climate neutral by 2050. This goal involves a massive investment plan to support this initiative, but also to reduce disparities between Member States, in order to transform the Union into a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the sustainable development and renewable energy sources relationship in EU countries from a new perspective. Based on Eurostat available data and with the help of hierarchical clustering analysis, the Member States were divided in 2019 into five clusters, highlighting the key characteristics of the selected variables. The results of this research revealed high-performing groups of countries, as well as countries that need increased attention and additional support to become more efficient in achieving their sustainable development goals and renewable energy source targets.

The European Union has taken on the role of global leader in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, making substantial efforts to support this ambitious approach at the level of each Member State. The objective of this research is the assessment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) implementation in Bulgaria as well as the existing development potential, given the existing knowledge gap related to this important topic. The data available on Eurostat were processed using dynamic indices and time series analysis based on ARIMA methodology in order to identify the evolution trend of the main indicators associated with the SDGs, as well as the dynamics of progress. The results obtained estimate, for 2030, a degree of fulfillment of the assumed targets of 36.28%, but also reveal the existence of high potential for accelerating the transition process to a low-carbon economy and a more sustainable and inclusive society.