Abstract:

The article reveals the actual issue of the effective investment policy formation of the European Union countries based on a cluster approach as an economic development instrument of the countries in order to increase their investment attractiveness. The purpose of the article is to formulate directions of effective investment policy of the European Union countries on the basis of a cluster approach in order to strengthen their economic development and investment attractiveness. The article uses an abstract-logical method, methods of generalization and comparison, a system analysis method. The research substantiates the choice and algorithm for assessing the criteria for factor analysis of the European Union investment attractiveness on the basis of innovation activity, human capital, private capital, public capital, regional availability, and gross regional product. A model for formation the main features of investment clusters and stages of its calculation is proposed by the authors. The main investment peculiarities include patent activity, research and development costs, education level index, employment rate, labour force, industrial investment, budget expenditures, per capita budget expenditures, regional availability, and gross regional product per capita. In the process of calculating the clustering of the European Union regions, the mathematical and statistical methods of analysis and the applied statistical analysis package of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) have been used. As a result of the data obtained, 28 European countries have been divided into 8 clusters. For each cluster, the directions for an effective investment policy formation have been determined.