BEST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

FOR BUSINESS ​2020

Rank
1 - 10
11 - 20
21 - 30
31 - 40
41 - 46
not ranked

Research based on
World Bank and
Transparency International
indexes
eucham.eu​/research

Rank Country Score Rank Country Score Rank Country Score

1 Denmark 86 17 ↑ Spain 70 33 ↑ Armenia 58
2 ↑ Sweden 84 18 ↓ Georgia 70 34 ↑ Greece 58
3 ↓ Norway 83 19 ↓ Portugal 69 35 ↓ Turkey 58
4 Finland 83 20 ↑ Slovenia 68 36 ↓ North Macedonia 58
5 ↑ Switzerland 81 21 ↓ Latvia 68 37 ↓ Bulgaria 58
6 ↓ United Kingdom 80 22 ↓ Poland 67 38 ↓ Serbia 57
7 Germany 80 23 Czech Republic 66 39 ↑ Kazakhstan 57
8 Netherlands 79 24 Cyprus 66 40 ↓ Kosovo 55
9 Iceland 79 25 ↑ Italy 63 41 ↑ Azerbaijan 53
10 Austria 78 26 ↓ Slovakia 63 42 ↓ Moldova 53
11 Estonia 77 27 ↑ Croatia 60 43 Russia 53
12 Ireland 77 28 Malta 60 44 ↓ Albania 51
13 ↑ Belgium 75 29 ↓ Belarus 60 45 Bosnia & Herz. 51
14 ↓ Luxembourg 75 30 ↑ Montenegro 59 46 Ukraine 50
15 ↓ France 73 31 ↑ Hungary 59 Rounded scores displayed.
The rank reflects the non-rounded scores
16 ↑ Lithuania 71 32 ↓ Romania 59 of the full report (see page 3).

© EuCham Research Department • v. 200421 Page 1/3

 EuCham Research
Spring 2020

Best European Countries for Business 2020

Country Score ● As in the previous years, Nordic countries are

still dominant at the top of the research Best
1 Denmark 86 European Countries for Business 2020.

2 Sweden 84 ● In the ranking, Armenia stands out with its

whopping 6 positions up, and with Spain,
3 Norway 83 Montenegro, and Azerbaijan, have gone up the
most, while North Macedonia has slipped the
4 Finland 83 most (5 positions down).
5 Switzerland 81 ● Regarding the score, the highest level of
improvement is shown by Armenia and
...
Kazakhstan.
France, North Macedonia, and Albania have the
46 Ukraine 50
most significant negative variation.

EuCham data based on World Bank and

● The EuCham score is based on the average of two
Transparency International reports.
46 European countries were considered.
indicators: the Ease of Doing Business score
(World Bank) and the Corruption Perception
Index score (Transparency International).

● Russia is slightly improving its score, but stays in

the same position near the bottom of the list.
Ukraine still remains the last as in the previous
year.

Methodology and results

The European Chamber ranks European countries based on their business environment. The EuCham score, used for the
ranking, is calculated with the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business score (EoDB) and Transparency International’s Corruption
Perception Index (CPI). The EuCham score of a country is reflected on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest
performance and 100 represents the best. Denmark tops the ranking with a score of 86, followed by Sweden, Norway, Finland,
and Switzerland.

Other studies, which do not take into consideration corruption, show different results because they only reflect the capacity of
countries' environments to address the corporate sector's desire to achieve financial results. The World Bank’s score is mostly
influenced by the effectiveness of regulations, and by the time it takes to finalize corporate transactions. EuCham, however,
considers integrity and transparency expectations equally important factors in the assessment.

Additional information
The EuCham score, used for the ranking, is the average of the EoDB and the CPI scores (50% weight each). A high score
indicates the country is favorable to do business in, while low scores refer to the least favorable countries for business.

The EoDB score by the World Bank (from their Doing Business report) measures the gap between the country’s own economic
policies and regulations, and the best practice on each indicator across all economies (e.g. starting a business, paying taxes,
trading across borders, property registration). The difference is shown on a scale from 0, representing the lowest possible
performance, to 100, the highest currently attainable result according to the new standards used since the 2015 edition of the
Doing Business report.

The CPI from Transparency International is used to determine how corrupt each country’s public sector is perceived to be, on a
scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). A low score can be an indication of widespread bribery, lack of punishment for
corruption, or a government not responding to social needs.

© EuCham Research Department • v. 200421 Page 2/3

 Best European Countries for Business 2020
The EuCham score

Doing Business score CPI score

Ranking EuCham score World Bank Transparency Int.

2019 2020 Change 2019 2020 2019 2020 2019 2020*

Denmark 1 1 - 86.32 86.15 84.64 85.30 88 87

Sweden 3 2 ⬆ 83.14 83.50 81.27 82.00 85 85

Norway 2 3 ⬇ 83.48 83.30 82.95 82.60 84 84

Finland 4 4 - 82.68 83.10 80.35 80.20 85 86

Switzerland 6 5 ⬆ 80.35 80.80 75.69 76.60 85 85

United Kingdom 5 6 ⬇ 81.33 80.25 82.65 83.50 80 77

Germany 7 7 - 79.45 79.85 78.95 79.70 80 80

Netherlands 8 8 - 79.02 79.05 76.04 76.10 82 82

Iceland 9 9 - 77.68 78.50 79.35 79.00 76 78

Austria 10 10 - 77.29 77.85 78.57 78.70 76 77

Estonia 11 11 - 76.75 77.30 80.50 80.60 73 74

Ireland 12 12 - 75.96 76.80 78.91 79.60 73 74

Belgium 15 13 ⬆⬆ 74.48 75.00 73.95 75.00 75 75

Luxembourg 13 14 ⬇ 75.01 74.80 69.01 69.60 81 80

France 14 15 ⬇ 74.65 72.90 77.29 76.80 72 69

Lithuania 18 16 ⬆⬆ 69.92 70.80 80.83 81.60 59 60

Spain 21 17 ⬆⬆⬆⬆ 67.84 69.95 77.68 77.90 58 62

Georgia 16 18 ⬇⬇ 70.64 69.85 83.28 83.70 58 56

Portugal 17 19 ⬇⬇ 70.28 69.25 76.55 76.50 64 62

Slovenia 22 20 ⬆⬆ 67.81 68.25 75.61 76.50 60 60

Latvia 19 21 ⬇⬇ 68.80 68.15 79.59 80.30 58 56

Poland 20 22 ⬇⬇ 68.48 67.20 76.95 76.40 60 58

Czech Republic 23 23 - 67.55 66.15 76.10 76.30 59 56

Cyprus 24 24 - 65.36 65.70 71.71 73.40 59 58

Italy 26 25 ⬆ 62.28 62.95 72.56 72.90 52 53

Slovakia 25 26 ⬇ 62.59 62.80 75.17 75.60 50 50

Croatia 29 27 ⬆⬆ 59.70 60.30 71.40 73.60 48 47

Malta 28 28 - 59.72 60.05 65.43 66.10 54 54

Belarus 27 29 ⬇⬇ 59.89 59.65 75.77 74.30 44 45

Montenegro 33 30 ⬆⬆⬆ 58.87 59.40 72.73 73.80 45 45

Hungary 32 31 ⬆ 59.14 58.70 72.28 73.40 46 44

Romania 30 32 ⬇⬇ 59.65 58.65 72.30 73.30 47 44

Armenia 39 33 ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆ 55.19 58.25 75.37 74.50 35 42

Greece 36 34 ⬆⬆ 56.54 58.20 68.08 68.40 45 48

Turkey 34 35 ⬇ 57.67 57.90 74.33 76.80 41 39

North Macedonia 31 36 ⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇ 59.28 57.85 81.55 80.70 37 35

Bulgaria 35 37 ⬇⬇ 56.62 57.50 71.24 72.00 42 43

Serbia 37 38 ⬇ 56.25 57.35 73.49 75.70 39 39

Kazakhstan 40 39 ⬆ 54.45 56.80 77.89 79.60 31 34

Kosovo 38 40 ⬇⬇ 55.58 54.60 74.15 73.20 37 36

Azerbaijan 44 41 ⬆⬆⬆ 51.82 53.35 78.64 76.70 25 30

Moldova 41 42 ⬇ 53.27 53.20 73.54 74.40 33 32

Russia 43 43 - 52.69 53.10 77.37 78.20 28 28

Albania 42 44 ⬇⬇ 52.76 51.35 69.51 67.70 36 35

Bosnia & Herz. 45 45 - 50.91 50.70 63.82 65.40 38 36

Ukraine 46 46 - 50.13 50.10 68.25 70.20 32 30

* This column, named 2020, uses data from CPI 2019 published in Jan 2020. Same logic for the column named 2019.
No data: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Vatican City, San Marino.
Sources: World Bank, Transparency International, EuCham - European Chamber.
EuCham Research Department: Rania Fallatah, Cecilia Bottoni, Patrícia Lipi.

© EuCham Research Department • v. 200421 Page 3/3