The effects of sustainable economic development on the quality of life in the context of the enlargement of the European Union

Abstract

Abstract The whole historical evolution of economic development, with all its positive valences, but also with its failures, has prepared the conditions for the affirmation and emergence of sustainable development. Sustainable development expresses the need to substantiate the evolutions of the economic environment in correlation with the general behavior towards the natural and the social environment. Economic development, as it has been for centuries, cannot be continued without taking into account the conditions and restrictions imposed by the other two environments. The new vision of the future development of the world starts from the need to ensure equal opportunities for human generations that coexist and succeed each other in life. Scientists, politicians, civil society are aware of the need to change the current way of producing and consuming goods in society, thus moving to a sustainable development based on a human economy and the compatibility of man-made environment with the natural environment of the monetary profit with the social-human one. Over the last two decades, more attention has been paid to the analysis of social problems, especially those concerning the quality of life and standard of living. All studies in the field are focused on the analysis of living standards indicators, considered by specialists to be, through the researched field, the scope, calculation methodology, usefulness of results in developing social policies, the most important social indicators.