Assessing Progress and Disparities in SDG Performance Across EU Countries: Evidence from a Taxonomy-Based Approach

This paper examines the evolution of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) performance among European Union (EU) countries from 2000 to 2024 using a taxonomy-based approach. It aims to identify changes in sustainability performance, investigate regional disparities between Western Europe (WE) and Eastern Europe (EE), and assess progress across the social, economic, and environmental dimensions. A panel dataset comprising multiple SDG indicators was employed, with variables aggregated into the Taxonomic Measure of Sustainable Development (TMSD). Based on this measure, countries were classified into performance categories—pioneers, challengers, below-average performers, and underperformers—allowing for the analysis of long-term structural trends. The results indicate an overall improvement in SDG performance across the EU, reflected in an increasing share of countries classified as pioneers and a declining share of underperformers. WE countries more often occupy higher performance categories, although the gap with EE has recently narrowed. Progress is found to be uneven across SDG dimensions, with more pronounced improvements in the economic and environmental areas than in the social dimension. The study contributes by providing a comprehensive and longitudinal assessment of SDG implementation in the EU over a 25-year period, identifying persistent regional disparities, and supporting systematic monitoring and policy coordination at the European level.