Progress in Implementing the Sustainable Development Concept into Socioeconomic Development in Poland Compared to other Member States

Sustainable development-related issues have been discussed in the public discourse worldwide since the 1960’s. The socioeconomic development theme is one of the key themes in sustainable development singled out by the European Union with a special attention paid to three crucial areas, namely: economic development, competitiveness, innovation and eco-efficiency as well as employment. Therefore, the aim of this article is to assess the implementation level of the sustainable development concept in the area of socioeconomic development in Poland compared to other Member States. In order to achieve the articles aim the following two research tasks were performed: sustainable development in terms of socioeconomic development in the EU strategic documents has been described and the sustainable development concept in the area of socioeconomic concept in Poland compared to other Member States has been analysed. The analysis showed that the gap between Poland and the ‘old’ EU has been narrowed since 2004; however, the progress in implementing the sustainable development concept into socioeconomic development was still slow comparing to both the EU-10 and EU-15. This article is based on the available reference, government documents and the analysis was conducted on the basis of secondary data provided by Eurostat.