Resumen
The paper analyzes the intensity of the influence of the quality of institutions according to the data from the World Bank's specialized Worldwide Governance Indicators database on the growth of gross domestic product per capita of 33 countries of Europe through linear and exponential regression analysis for the period from 1996 to 2016. The observed European countries are divided into three groups: 15 European Union member states in 1995; 13 EU member states from 2004, 2007 and 2013, as well as five countries of the Western Balkans that negotiate or have the status of a candidate for EU membership, in the period from 1996 to 2016. The results of the research have shown that the quality of the institutions had a very positive impact on the economic growth of the observed countries of Europe. According to statistics, positive interdependence is the most significant among the Western Balkan countries. The conclusion is that these countries have to pay special attention to the development of institutions in the process of joining the European Union.