Management of EU sustainable development using innovation policy

The article presents a study of the experience of EU countries in managing sustainable development with the tools and means of innovation policy. It was revealed that in the 21st century the development of the EU is characterized, among other things, by such trends as the transition to the principles of sustainable development and the expansion of the functional focus of innovation policy. The trend of innovation policy of the EU in the 21st century has been determined – transition from purely economic goals (strengthening competitiveness and increasing rate of economic growth) to supporting sustainable development (achieving economic progress to increase public welfare and preserve the environment for future generations). The features of ‘sustainable innovation policy’ are characterized and the dynamics and structure of directing the measures of the last five framework programs of the EU innovation policy aimed at the components of sustainable development are analyzed. Models of the impact of the level of innovative development of the EU countries (SII) on the social (HDI), economic (GNP (PPP) per capita), environmental (ERI) and general sustainable development (SDG Index) indicators of the EU countries were built using regression analysis. Based on the econometric analysis of the data set for 2022, it was found that the innovativeness of the EU countries has not become the main factor in promoting the sustainable development of the community, despite the declaration of a change in the course of innovation policy and the implementation of a number of socially and environmentally oriented measures. It was determined that the relationship between the level of innovative development of EU countries and their sustainability is average for the group of innovatively developed countries, close for countries with an average level of innovativeness and weak for the least innovatively developed countries. The need for further research on the effectiveness of the EU innovation policy sustainability has been determined.