Sustainability of catch-up growth in the extended European Union

•Compatibility of economic growth with sustainability concept is analysed.•Essential increase in resource efficiency of new EU member states is observed.•Absolute decoupling of environmental pollution from economy growth is determined.•Faster de-fossilisation of economy is absolutely necessary.•Decelerating growth is most acceptable and realistic for developed countries.

This paper analyses the compatibility of growth and sustainability in the European Union (EU) including a new EU member states from the former Soviet bloc (EU10). The extension of EU borders, financial and technological support stimulated rapid convergence and decreased the socio-economic differences between the old (EU15) and newly accepted EU member states. The transition from a command to a market economy resulted in the remarkable increase in resource efficiency and other positive aspects of sustainability. Along with 1.5 times increased GDP, final energy consumption decreased by 20%, greenhouse gases emissions by 25% and the emissions of acidifying compounds were halved during the period from the collapse of former Soviet bloc to the recent economic crisis. However, the per capita production and consumption in EU10 is still approximately half that of EU15, and further catch-up growth should be expected ensuring that economic and social cohesion is not achieved at the expense of increased environmental impact.Decelerated economic growth is a feature characteristic of mature economies and the GDP growth rate in EU15 states decreased almost 2.5 times during the last 50 year. Similar trends are characteristic of other developed countries, and market economies have adapted to this trend. Even with a decelerated growth rate, the ecological footprint in developed countries currently exceeds three and more times the allowable limits and almost two-thirds of the ecological footprint relates to traditional energy. De-fossilisation by a greater increase in energy efficiency, use of renewable energy, and more intense material recovery is the most promising option for reducing the ecological footprint of these countries. Deceleration of the economic growth rate supplemented by the aforementioned options is a hard but realistic track leading to the reduction of ecological footprint in developed countries to allowable limits without radical de-growth in consumption and production that can result in unpredictable and unacceptable consequences.