Sustainable development in the European Union countries: panel data model evidence

Sustainable development (SD) is significant in the European Union (EU) policy. This article examines the impact of key macroeconomic factors on the SD of the logistics enterprises of 25 EU countries divided into four regions. The macroeconomic factors included Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDP per capita), unemployment rate, wages, external balance of goods and services, and Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP). The methodological part used panel models with fixed effects, ANOVA and the Scheffé procedure. Between 2008 and 2023, different macroeconomic factors influenced the SD depending on the region of Europe. The SD is most strongly affected by a change in the unemployment rate (Western, Central and Eastern Europe) and the HICP (Northern and Southern Europe). The GDP per capita proves significant in all regions except Northern Europe and is the most important variable in panel models for Southern Europe. In two regions (Western, Central and Eastern Europe), individual environmental effects are usually higher than those in the social area. The highest levels of sustainability in the economic domain are observed in panel models for Northern Europe and the lowest - for Southern Europe. The latter is much worse at implementing the SDGs than other European regions.