REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

PART I:
Educational index of the Balkan countries (excluded Slovenia, which belongs to the leading
team at OECD level too in terms of education). What is more interesting and promising
that this human factor is linked to a relatively better GDP index, the highest again among
Balkan countries (excluded Slovenia again, which is regularly debated as a Balkan country
at the same time). The bottleneck of a human development lead model in Bulgaria can be
the very low level of life expectancy, the lowest of all countries in the survey.
CONCLUSIONS
1. The Lisbon Strategy is facing fundamental challenges in the coming years. On the
one hand it has to find the way how to develop a knowledge based economy of high
competitiveness on the wide interpretation of sustainability. On the other hand the
Lisbon process should count with the further enlargement of the integration. The
sustainability and enlargement processes demand new approach in quantification
of the performance of the member states as well as that of the candidate countries.
Our suggestion is the development of an indicator from international rankings
(Relative Total Performance) that both expresses the different interpretations of
sustainability with much background information as well as gives an opportunity
for a comprehensive comparison of different countries.
2. The various international rankings reflect the values of the Euro-Atlantic
world: their concept of modernisation as it had shaped during the past centuries
together with the more up-to-date concept of sustainable development. Thus our
respective statements and conclusions regarding the sustainability and catching
up of the Balkan and East Central European economies and societies are only
valid if interpreted within this set of values. The rankings themselves provide a
certain picture, but their palette-type examination enables the indices of various
aspects, based on relative performances, to provide a more uniform image; and
the several hundreds of indicators behind the indices allow us to have a more
detailed overview of the domestic processes as well as the international perception
thereof.
3. By the Relative Total Performance of most of the indicators the discussed region
belongs to the catching up and low middle range category on an OECD basis.
However, it is important to stress that catching up does not mean an absolute
level of economic output but a relative performance in terms of a wide range of
indicators and hence catching up refers to structural features and efforts. As a
general feature the survey shows that the Balkan region, even if on a solid level
relative to OECD, has a stronger potential in the human and environmental
factors than in the economic-technical environment. The differences in these
factors are much smaller too among the countries of the research, though each
reflects a unique structure and development model.
4. The above contradictions are further burdened by the fact that they do not appear
in an improving international position. A significant part of the catching up
energies of the countries invested into maintaining the competitiveness level: a
typical feature of the catching up and middle range is the constant fight to get
66