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.

Under the influence of the change in the overall economic environment, the problem of measuring the performance of a company and its financial health is also changing. At present, every agricultural company is exposed to a number of internal as well as external risks, the failure of which can lead to potential bankruptcy. It is a known fact that the risks in agriculture are significantly greater than those in other sectors of the national economy. Proper diagnosis of critical aspects and measuring the development of individual financial indicators of agricultural holdings are basic prerequisites for eliminating these risks and maintaining, as well as increasing, their competitiveness. Among the key tools for measuring the financial situation of a company are bankruptcy models, three of which have been used (Altman model, Taffler model, and Bonity index). The aim of this study was to identify the comprehensive financial health of 469 agricultural enterprises in the Slovak Republic using the three above-mentioned bankruptcy models in 2016. The obtained results were verified using the Kruskal–Wallis test, Levene test, or Moran index. Altman’s model indicated potential future problems of businesses and agricultural cooperatives. Using the Bonity index, the neutral situation was assessed (the financial health could be regarded as neither insufficient nor optimal). Taffler model offered contradicted results and does not expect the occurrence of problems soon. In the study, we also verified the assumption of the dependence of financial health of companies on the legal form and territorial division, which was confirmed to be insignificant.

Almost every country was heading a large portion of their income on agricultural subsidies. The agricultural subsidies are an essential aspect of agriculture and play an important role in international trade. A policy to support farming incomes in the European Union is called the Common Agricultural Policy. It is the complicated policy that includes many tools. An impact of policy of EU agricultural support on the economic performance of agricultural enterprises is therefore an interesting question, especially for policy makers. The agriculture in Slovakia has undergone significant changes, not only in terms of its position in the national economy, but also in terms of its importance at the regional level. There are still persistent differences between better and worse natural conditions as well as economic and social differences with a possible impact on the level of gross agricultural production in different regions of Slovakia. The aim of this paper is to quantify the dependence of agricultural production from the subsidies granted in the context of regions under the NUTS III classification. For the calculation, we used Pearson correlation coefficient that determines the direction and rate of statistical dependence force of two numeric variables. The analysis confirmed our assumption, the result of which is that between amount of gross agricultural production and the volume of subsidies granted is a strong correlation

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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.