This book brings together the work of researchers in Eastern and Western Europe, who analyze competitiveness, social exclusion and sustainability from a range of perspectives. It examines the key challenges faced by the EU in its efforts to establish a socially inclusive and greener path to growth and develops policy recommendations to simultaneously achieve the EU 2020 agenda’s long-term goals and address the current economic crisis in Europe.



Peter Huber, born in 1967, is a researcher at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research. He studied Economics at the University of Economics and Business Administration in Vienna, the University of Innsbruck and the Institute of Advanced Studies, Vienna where he also worked as a research assistant. Since 2012 he is acting as vice-director for external co-ordination at WIFO. His main research interests are in regional economics and the analysis of migration and commuting patterns in Europe.

Danuše Nerudová, Ph.D., Born in 1979, works as associate professor and head of the department of accounting and taxation and a lecturer at the Faculty of Business and Economics at the Mendel University in Brno. Her expertise is in the field of international taxation and tax policy. She has contributed and led numerous projects analyzing the impact of tax harmonization on the Czech Republic or the European Union. Her research primarily focuses on tax harmonization especially in the field of direct taxation, possibilities of financial sector taxation and on taxes as the revenues of national and EU budgets. Currently, she is the lead partner of the project “The quantification of the impact of the introduction of Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base on the budget revenues of the Czech Republic” financed by a grant from the Czech research grant agency (GACR).

Petr Rozmahel, born in 1977, is as an associate professor at the Mendel University in Brno. He is the head of the Research Centre at the Faculty of Business and Economics at the Mendel University. In his research he focuses on economic and monetary integration processes in Europe. In particular he concentrates on analysis of convergence processes of the Central and Eastern European countries towards the EU and Euro area at national as well as regional levels. At the university he also works as lecturer of basic and advanced courses of Macro and Microeconomics.