Abstract:

The purpose of the paper is to analyze changes in the internal structure of the area’s most often considered within the scope of sustainable development. For this purpose the multi-criteria taxonomy was used. The results of the research confirm the relatively high level of disparities between EU member states in the area of sustainable development, indicated also by other authors. A detailed analysis also confirmed that in the studied years the similarities of the countries due to the researched phenomenon have changed significantly. It should be noted, however, that the classification obtained in the future may be different if the final set of diagnostic indicators changes. According to the authors, further research should go towards verifying the impact of the choice of diagnostic features on the classification results.