The phenomenon of social exclusion in European Union Countries in relation to Europe 2020 Strategy

„Europe 2020- A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” is a long term programme of socio- economic development of European Union for 2010 – 2020. The present study is to examine the process of implementation of Europe 2020 Strategy indicators as regards social exclusion and poverty combating in Poland and other EU countries, as well as setting trends in this area and forecasting the objectives implementation period for the EU as a whole and for Poland individually. Another objective of the research is categorizing the EU countries as regards the similar level of measures describing the social exclusion phenomenon by means of TOPSIS and Ward’s methods. The research period is 2005-2015