Assessing the Performance of Sustainable Development Goals of EU Countries: Hard and Soft Data Integration

Abstract

The European Union (EU) energy policy for sustainable development has been the topic of continuous debate, research, and analysis, which frequently focused on objectives and the evaluation of quantitative and qualitative performance. Different approaches can be used for the assessment of sustainable development goals. The authors of the article conducted a literature review of relevant research papers dated 2016–2020. The most common are quantitative methods based on hard data. Some qualitative studies based on soft data are also available but rare. This article proposes hybrid Rough Set Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Rough Set Network DEA models that integrate both approaches. Also, the models allow the inclusion of uncertainty in the underlying data. The article uses hard data of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the results of the EU survey regarding the influence of the socio-economic environment on CO2 emissions in EU countries. The authors demonstrate that multifaceted and objective assessment is possible by merging concepts from the set theory and operational research.