DIVERSIFICATION OF THE LEVEL OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE THREE SEAS INITIATIVE' MEMBERS

The purpose of the study, the results of which were presented in this paper, was assessment of socio-economic development of the countries belonging to the Three Seas Initiative. This is the initiative of 12 European Union's members from Central and Eastern Europe. On the one hand, it is an attempt to strengthen this part of the EU which, due to its recent history, is an area of insufficient (quantitatively and qualitatively) transport, energy and communication infrastructure. On the other hand, creation of an alliance within the EU by the least developed countries (Austria is an exception) is a source of doubts raised by economists and politicians about legitimacy of creating new, special relations between the listed EU's members. The paper analyzes the material obtained during literature studies. Based on desk research, the most important premises and objectives of the Three Seas Initiative are presented. For the purpose of analyzing socio-economic development, the socio-economic development indicator (SEDI), presented in the literature, was adapted. This indicator was used to assess changes in the economies in three chosen years. The variables selected for SEDI estimation for different countries concern those areas of the state, which are particularly important for implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy. The level of socio-economic development of the Central and Eastern Europe's countries (EU's members since 2004, 2009 or 2013) is significantly different from the level of development of Austria and the average level of the entire EU economy. The lack of a stable basis of the economy in these countries was manifested by the rapid and definitively negative reaction of SEDI (in 2009) and the improvement of the economic situation did not bring about spectacular changes in the SEDI value (in 2013). The design of the SEDI indicator and the analysis of its value allowed initial assessment of the socio-economic development potential of the "new" EU states forming the Three Seas Initiative. On the basis of changes in this indicator, it can be concluded that there is no sigma convergence or absolute beta convergence between these countries. Yet, some symptoms of conditional beta convergence can be observed.