Definition, characteristics and state of the indicators of sustainable development in countries of Southeastern Europe

In order to define strategic and operational aims of sustainable development it is necessary to define the indicators of sustainable development. As a multi-dimensional phenomenon, Sustainable development has a goal to integrate economic, ecological, social and institutional subsystem into a whole, taking care of their mutual influence. Given the characteristics of the indicators of sustainable development and with respect to the need to strengthen regional cooperation and European integrations, it is necessary to define and follow the state of the indicators of sustainability in countries of Southeastern Europe. The current state of the indicators of sustainable development in the area of countries of Southeastern Europe above all points to the fact that the values of the indicators of certain subsystems in chosen countries are within expectations, however, the total value of sustainable development determined on the basis of chosen indicators more or less departs from the expectations. The special value is given by the comparison of obtained results of the state in the developed EU countries. according to which there is an impression of equal degree Of Sustainable development in France and Germany, whereas the data regarding the state of sustainable development in Greece are somewhat below the expected level. All gained results point to a definite momentary collision between ecological and economic indicators of sustainable development (economic development at its early stage by all means imposes the need for exhaustion of ecological resources) and they as well show the fact that the development of institutional indicators of development in the countries of Southeastern Europe can be expected after the development of all remaining indicators. It leads to the conclusion that the sustainable development in chosen countries cannot proceed synchronously, equal development of all subsystems is almost impossible, so the authors consider it necessary to recognize certain degree of importance that each individual indicator has at the given moment of its development. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V, All rights reserved.