Measuring Sustainable Development in the European Union Using the Adjusted Net Saving

Sustainable development is an overarching objective of the European Union (EU). In this Paper, the main attention is paid to the development of the Adjusted Net Saving indicator in the EU countries, which is an macroeconomic indicator of sustainable development developed by the World Bank. The progress of the EU against the challenges laid out in its long-term Sustainable Development Strategy has been monitored with the Sustainable Development Indicators (SDIs). Regarding that the analysis is completed with detecting some relations of Adjusted Net Saving with the Resource Productivity, which is one of the EU SDIs. The aim of the Paper is to critically assess the development of the Adjusted Net Saving indicator in the EU countries in terms of sustainable development and to evaluate the compliance of its development with the Resource Productivity in these countries. The Adjusted Net Saving indicates the best results in terms of sustainable development for Sweden but it cannot be said that the EU is on the sustainable development path. Moreover, the relations between Adjusted Net Saving and Resource Productivity are also not straightforward.