In the context of current economic and financial crisis a comparative analysis of the main indices of economic and social performance of the EU member states is necessary. In such line of argument, the authors propose, as novelty, an economic power-economic performance matrix as a methodological instrument for monitoring significant discontinuities in the development of the EU member states, able to provide consistent information about some of the threats against the EU economic sustainability. The core idea is to use integrating criteria able to reveal in a clear manner the results of the common efforts of governments, businesses and civil society aiming to improve the economic and social performance of the 27 EU countries. Developing their previous research, the authors propose a model based on 16 criteria grouped into 6 domains, selected on the basis of thorough analyses of the main medium-term determinants of a country’s economic and social performance (referring to overall economic performance, structure of economy, foreign trade efficiency, human development policies, informational society and tourism incomes, as proxy for infrastructure development). The economic power-economic performance matrix built on the basis of such a model for all the EU countries revealed a single net leader, both in terms of economic power and economic performance (Germany), but also high significant negative discrepancies between economic power and economic performance, both among the countries with higher economic power (United Kingdom, Italy, Spain) and among the countries with lower economic power (Greece and Romania). Keywords: economic power, economic performance, integrating criteria, comparative analysis JEL Classification: C18, C43, O47, O52
