The Economic Freedom Index as a Measure of the Competitiveness of EU Companies

In the context of European integration, the competitiveness of EU companies is very important due to the dynamics of international developments. The economic freedom index is one of the most important indexes on the basis of which the global economies are ranked, assessing the 12 measures of economic freedom (divided into four main categories) and grouping the countries according to the best conditions for the development of enterprises (defining them as liberal economies), then good, average and those that are completely non-marketable (illiberal) and do not create opportunities for growth for their businesses. The aim of the article is to classify the 28 EU countries into individual groups and to characterize them in comparison to the five countries of the world that create the best and worst development conditions for their businesses. The article was developed on the basis of the latest report (data from 2018) published for 24 years by The Heritage Foundation, assessing 186 countries in the world.