The review is the third in a biennial series that assesses the progress made by EU member countries in the EU's Lisbon Strategy goals of economic and structural reforms. In addition to assessing the performance of the 25 existing EU members, it also measures the competitive performance of the countries on the waiting list to join in coming years.
"Among candidate countries, Croatia and Turkey, two countries with no foreseen entry date, do better in many of the different dimensions, and in the overall ranking, than Bulgaria and Romania, two countries which will join the EU in January 2007. What is perhaps even more remarkable is that both Croatia and Turkey score higher overall than Poland, a present EU member," the WEF said in a press release.
In the ranking of potential member countries, Croatia ranked first with a score of 3.93 points, followed by Turkey with 3.92, Romania with 3.59, Bulgaria with 3.31, Macedonia with 3.28, and Serbia and Montenegro with 3.14 points.
The rankings were based on eight dimensions measured by The Lisbon Review 2006: creating an information society for all, developing a European area for innovation and R&D, liberalization (completing the single market, state aid and competition policy), building network industries, creating efficient and integrated financial services, improving the enterprise environment, increasing social inclusion, and enhancing sustainable development.