The article is devoted to the analysis and generalisation of the European practice of smart prioritisation with an emphasis on the role of the industrial sector in the implementation of innovative solutions to ensure sustainable development. The object of the study is the reference countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It was found that the CEE countries are at different stages of the path to sustainable development and demonstrate different degrees of concentration of national smart specialisation strategies on sustainable innovations. Croatia, Poland and the Czech Republic show the greatest interest in the implementation of smart priorities for sustainable development. Sustainable energy and renewables, resource efficiency, sustainable production and consumption prevail among the subject areas of sustainable innovation. In the sectoral aspect, the leading role in the implementation of smart innovative solutions to ensure sustainable development is assigned to manufacturing. In the developed smart specialisation strategies, most of the CEE countries focus on the manufacture of food products. This indicates the choice of smart priorities based on traditional specialisations. The prospects for the development of this sector are related to the bioeconomy, which also involves the resources of the wood industry and accumulated technological knowledge in chemical production and machine building. We have revealed two approaches in the practice of smart prioritisation: (1) concentrated prioritisation, which involves focusing on a certain innovative direction and is based on a limited number of types of economic activity with an understanding of their future interaction; (2) broad prioritisation, which is characteristic of territories with weak innovation ecosystems and involves unclear cross-sectoral interactions and coverage of a significant number of innovation directions, which are planned to be clarified in the course of further collaboration between key stakeholders. The results of the study make it possible to improve approaches to the development of smart specialisation strategies for the recovery and sustainable development of Ukrainian territories in the post-war period and to build a mutually beneficial cross-border/interregional partnership between Ukraine and the CEE countries in the selected smart priorities.