SELECTION OF INDICATORS FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF NATIONAL BIOECONOMIES IN THE EU COUNTRIES.

The essence of the «bioeconomy» concept as one of the modern vectors of economic and social systems has been examined in this paper. This concept is characterized by orientation to sustainable development, reducing the negative impact of economic activity on the environment by decreasing dependence on fossil fuels, as well as gradual «biologization» of economic processes. The development of this concept in EU countries has been analyzed. The selection of indicators for assessing the national bio-economies of EU countries has been carried out and followed by division of these indicators into five groups. For the first time, the importance of each indicator in the group has been examined and its weight coefficients have been calculated with the help of expert analysis. Further promising areas in the field of national bio-economies assessment have been highlighted, in particular, the methodology of an integral index of bio-economy, the importance of its calculation for European countries which can be the basis for the assessment of bio-economies development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]