OREANDA-NEWS. June 21, 2010. Estonia and Denmark are tied in second place in the latest table ranking European countries by the European Economic Sustainability Index (EESI).

In the EESI scoreboard for 2007 Estonia was in the first place.

The table for 2010, compiled like the previous such survey by the European Policy Center (EPC) think tank, is topped by Sweden. Next after Estonia and Denmark comes Finland in place 4.

Lithuania ranks 19th and Latvia 23rd. At the bottom of the table ranking EU member states come Portugal, Italy and Greece, in that order.

The think tank describes the latter three countries as unsustainable.

The index is constructed using six domains: deficits, national debt, growth, competitiveness as expressed in the world competitiveness rankings of the World Economic Forum, governance/corruption as expressed in the perceived corruption index of Transparency International, and the cost of ageing expresed in future outlays for pensions, health care, education and employment.