The importance of competitiveness measuring in the light of Serbia's accession to European Union

The 2000 Lisbon European Council defined competitiveness as the main strategic goal and prerequisite for sustainable economic growth, high employment and social cohesion. However, the economic crisis encouraged the adoption of the new strategy called “Europe 2020” to ensure new impetus for dynamic and sustainable growth, reemphasizing competitiveness as the main tool for growth as well as an important issue within macroeconomic surveillance. Considering that Serbia wants membership in European Union, foundations on which EU is built and current goals must be the direction in which development of Serbia should be steered. Mean for that is the strategic document entitled “Serbia 2020” defining the basic elements of socio-economic development of Serbia until the year of 2020. It follows the structure proposed and adopted by the European Commission, taking into account the specific conditions of the Republic of Serbia. In accordance to that, this paper will present overview of the most important competiveness indexes. It will include detailed analysis of Serbia low ranking and possible ways for improving its competiveness. The paper will consider different strategies for better monitoring of level of competitiveness of Serbia. It will also benchmark different competiveness indicators with targets of EU strategies, especially Europe 2020.