Position and perspectives for enhancement of competitiveness in the Southern EU member-states five years after the beginning of the crisis

The aim of the following research paper is to present the state of the business environment five years after the beginning of the crisis, the most general reasons for this state and the erspectives for positive change in the context of the conditions for enhancement of competitiveness of the companies in the most problematic for EU region – the South European Member-States. The research is accomplished by systematization and generalization of secondary data from popular periodical international comparative studies of the competitiveness indicators, in which are present results for the countries from the region. Among the main results of the research are definition of the group of the „Southern EU Member-States” in competitiveness context, as well as the classification in groups and systematization of these states according to the main present challenges for competitiveness of the environment and the perspectives for competitive growth and development in middle term.