Evaluating the Progress of the EU Countries Towards Implementation of the European Green Deal: A Multiple Criteria Approach

Giovanni Ottomano Palmisano (), Lucia Rocchi, Lorenzo Negri and Lea Piscitelli
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Giovanni Ottomano Palmisano: Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Via G. Amendola 165/a, 70126 Bari, Italy
Lucia Rocchi: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy
Lorenzo Negri: Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum—University of Bologna, Viale Fanin 44, 40127 Bologna, Italy
Lea Piscitelli: CIHEAM Bari, Via Ceglie 9, Valenzano, 70010 Bari, Italy

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-29

Abstract: The European Green Deal (EGD) is a package of policy initiatives launched by the European Commission in December 2019, which aims to set the European Union (EU) on the path to a green transition with the final goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. The package includes interlinked initiatives covering the climate, the environment, energy, transport, industry, agriculture, and sustainable finance. It is thus evident that holistic and scientifically sound decision support systems are crucial to help EU policymakers and stakeholders in monitoring the progress of countries towards the implementation of the EGD. Indeed, the multidimensionality of this policy initiative lends itself well to its integration into a Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding (MCDA) approach to the identification of priorities for action. Therefore, this research aims to evaluate the progress of the EU countries towards the implementation of the European Green Deal, using MCDA. The PROMETHEE II method was applied to the data for EU countries, using 26 key indicators collected from the Eurostat database and organized into three thematic clusters. The results enabled us to calculate overall scores measuring the degree of implementation of the EGD by the EU countries, and their profiles with respect to the key indicators and thematic clusters. By analyzing these profiles, strengths and weaknesses were identified. Thus, the fundamental novelty of this research consists of the first concrete application of a holistic and ‘ready-to-use’ decision-making tool that can be adopted by EU policymakers and stakeholders to draw up a roadmap towards climate neutrality.

Keywords: climate impact; land protection; green transition; environmental assessment; policy evaluation; policy making; decision aiding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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