Th e objective of the paper is to analyse the state of implementing the idea of smart cities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) by identifying the most widely used smart solutions on its area. Th e authors give defi nitions of a smart city and indicate the variety of methods and tools for implementing the concept in practice. Th en they focus on selected rankings of smart cities and examine a few successful examples of smart initiatives from CEE. As a result of the analyses, the authors state that the philosophy of a smart city is to identify and implement the most effi cient ways of providing public services in cities. Th e authors also found that in spite of the fact that CEE cities are not European leaders in terms of the ongoing smart initiatives and rankings of smart cities, within their territories smart solutions are implemented increasingly and more eff ectively. Th e authors indicate that the main advantage of implementing intelligent solutions in CEE cities might be building their brands and thereby encouraging the infl ux of new residents, investors and tourists. Although these solutions are not a comprehensive set of management tools for authorities of a city, smart cities are slowly becoming reality in CEE.

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The European Union strives to create sustainable, low-carbon economies; therefore, energy policies of all member states should move towards renewable energy sources (RES). That concerns also the so-called new EU member states. These countries, on the one hand, are characterized by significant historical similarities in terms of post-communist legacy and adopted development strategies linked with the EU membership, and on the other hand, by significant social, economic and environmental differences resulting from different transformation and development paths and conditions. The question remains how the selected countries should cope with actions in the field of national energy transformations to confront the multiple challenges linked to assuring a significant level of sustainable development. In order to be successful, it is necessary to conduct an effective and rapid changes in the energy industry, which should be preceded by an analysis of the differentiation of countries in terms of their potentials. The results of such analyses should be helpful in selecting the most appropriate strategies for transformation of the described industry. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to assess the new EU member states for RES diversification and identify similar subgroups of countries using cluster analysis, taking into account the percentage share of individual renewable energy sources in total renewable energy production. This was done for the years 2010, 2015 and 2019 which should allow us to demonstrate the differences between them as a group and also reveal changes recorded over time for a single country. Ward’s method was used for the analysis. The presented approach to the analysis of energy production enabled the acquisition of new knowledge in this field and supported the assessment of the current state of RES. The results obtained can be used in countries of comparable specificity to undertake activities of similar nature in relation to internal energy production, technological development or common energy policy.

Ports are a significant part of the global and regional cargo supply chain and transport network. Since the performance of ports has a significant impact on the economic growth of their countries, it is necessary to constantly analyse and plan port performance, to anticipate market trends and to improve the ability of a port to withstand the increasing overall competitive pressure. In port performance, not only physical ability to handle the flow of cargo, but also the potential competition for cargo is important. The methods presented in the scientific literature provide with an opportunity to evaluate only the technical efficiency of ports, completely excluding the aspect of financial performance of ports or the prospects for developing competitive advantages. Whereas, financial analyses are not suitable to study port performance. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop the evaluation model of seaports' performance that would enable assessing the financial situation of the organisation and determining its position in the market in relation to its competitors. The article analyses the factors of business competitiveness and the methods for their evaluation as well as the theoretical aspects of applying financial analysis. After different methodologies and evaluation models proposed by different authors are analysed, the economic evaluation model of port performance developed by the authors of the present article is presented. By applying this model, the evaluation of the performance of the Baltic seaports is carried out.

As the experiences of the Central and Eastern European countries show, the reforms connected with decentralization were important in agendas of transformation. It must be also stressed that their implementation had not only political impact as formation and empowerment of new territorial authorities was targeted also on the provision of improved public services to citizens according to the European standards such principles of subsidiarity and self-government. The aim of the article is to present the recent attempts for decentralization and local reforms and their impacts in Ukraine in order to indicate achievements and the possibilities of strengthening public services through the implementation of European self-government and public governance standards. The paper explores the process connected with implementation of series of reforms conducted since 2014 in the researched field. It also proves that the acts recently adopted in Ukraine constitute legal basis not only for the distribution of powers between the authorities at various levels of territorial-administrative system, but they are aimed to improve the quality and efficiency of public services.