Sustainable development is one of the fundamental and most important objectives of the worldwide policy. The conducted research shows that sustainable development (SD) is increasingly important in the consciousness of the EU countries, which can be viewed through a prism of the undertaken projects. This paper raises the issue of clusters and their significance in the development of a sustainable economy. The article explores trends in the European Union policy related to sustainable development and clusters. The purpose of this study is to find an answer to the following questions: How can clusters contribute to sustainable development and what are the key factors that ensure this process? To achieve the goal of the article a systematic study of the literature and reports was carried out. Moreover, the analysis of the activity of European clusters in the context of sustainable development was performed. Next, the examples of cluster projects focused on sustainable development were presented. It was shown that the clusters contribute a smarter and sustainable development by succeeding in technological and scientific results, developing new technologies for emerging industries, creating new business activities, enticing major technology companies, and connecting local firms into world-class value systems. Furthermore, the clusters participate actively in sustainable development as they promote knowledge creation, joint learning, technology transfer, as well as collaboration, and sustainable innovations. Finally, clusters facilitate the sustainable upgrading of small and medium enterprises and encourage the participation of stakeholders in the process of sustainable development.

Purpose:The paper aimed to check the activities of local governments contributing to the development of the innovation economy in Poland as well as to find the answer to the questions if local governments both support innovations, as well as implement innovations themselves. Moreover, the purpose of the paper was to find out if activities of local governments depend on their type (rural, urban, urban-rural) or not? Approach/Methodology/Design: In order to achieve that the method of desk research, quantitative and qualitative research were used. The first part of the research was based on a literature review and the second concerned the development of the survey questionnaire based on the literature review. The questionnaire survey was developed and the whole population (2479) of local governments in Poland, was investigated, in early -using the CAWI method. Findings: We have got the answers from 453 local governments. The conducted analysis showed what kind of innovation is undertaken by Polish local governments frequently, we also find out what kind of activities they undertake to increase the innovation economy. Practical Implications:LGUs should continue implementing the innovations resulting from ICT infrastructure and e-government at local level development. Both the world trends as well as last pandemic time confirmed the need of boosting innovations in this area. Secondly, the LG authorities should cooperate with business actors, coming from the other public sector, academia, and civil society. Originality/Value: The research has enabled to develop a conceptual understanding of the relationship between local government and innovative activities.

Motivation: The paper rises the issue of sustainable development in the context of challenges that present cities face. Development of innovative and sustainable economy is an aim for the whole society in the European Union. Three pillars of sustainable development: economic growth, environmental management and social inclusion are fundamental and occur across all economic sectors. Predominantly, they influence cities e.g. fast urbanization process, infrastructure, energy development as well as transportation. Cities in Europe are precursors of the transformation towards a low carbon and resource efficient economy. City authorities are planning and acting towards a more sustainable future characterized by investing in innovative, integrated technologies and services such as buildings, mobility, lighting and broadband communications. Aim: The aim of the article is to present challenges facing European cities in the light of sustainable development. The paper explores trends in regional policy undertaken by the European Union relating to sustainable development. The first part outlines the global vision of present and future goals of sustainable development in the world. The next part focuses on the cities and challenges they face referring to sustainable and smart development. Results: The conducted research shows sustainable development as still valid, important and topical. The research indicates that the structures of the EU are not the exclusively ORIGINAL ARTICLE received 13.06.2017; revised 20.03.2018; accepted 30.06.2018 Citation: Derlukiewicz, N., & Mempel-Śnieżyk, A. (2018

The article presents the phenomenon of special economic zones (SEZs) in Poland through characteristics of its legal, organizational and economic aspects. The detailed study of benefits and expectations from local authorities and managing authority of SEZs in Lower Silesia has been presented. The aim of this paper is to explain the phenomenon and the importance of cooperation between the enterprises located in special economic zones (SEZs) and also, between enterprises and local authorities. The authors hypothesize that participation in SEZs activities results in establishing cooperation among other entities within and beyond SEZs. For this paper, we designed and conducted a survey among economic entities seated in SEZs of Lower Silesia region. A simple random sampling approach was used with a representative number of economic entities' subpopulations proportionally reflecting the size of enterprises (small, medium, large) in the studied population. The interview questionnaire comprises a set of 24 questions referring to various aspects in the functioning of enterprises in SEZs. The conducted research have found that although research entities indicated legal obstacles, confusing regulations, shortage of personnel, or limited space for enterprise development in SEZs in Lower Silesia they qualified relationships with local authorities as very favourable and rather favourable. Despite the identified unfavourable conditions for conducting business the researched entities invested in new technologies, services and further expansion during their activity in SEZs. The researched entities also recognized the crucial role of the authority formally managing SEZs and their satisfaction resulting from relationships with local authorities.

An important role of modern economy is to create a well-functioning system of connections and supporting relations between local actors (entrepreneurs, business environment institutions, R&D area and local authorities).Present economy emphasizes various levels of cooperation:global, regional, national and local, at the same time indicating that local activity is essential for reaching the Millennium Development Goals. It should be underlined that they expire in 2015, and in the next year new goals will be proposed: Sustainable Development Goals.Bearing in mind the above, the aim of the article is to present the role of local authorities and network cooperation in achieving economic growth and sustainable developmentof the modern world. The paper presents new trends in regional policy undertaken by the EU: cooperation at the local level and how to identify regions' domains using cluster. In order to achieve this aim, the author used the qualitative methods, which allowed to broaden the knowledge concerning the examined phenomenon, the literature study of available literature, reports in the area of knowledge systematization and definitions related to clusters, regional development and the significance of local authorities.