The new technologies, the digitalisation of processes and automation of work will change the manner of doing business, working and living. The effects of digitalisation on the economy, society and quality of life imply significant challenges of the labour market. All the participants will be concerned: authorities, companies and ordinary people. The objective of this research is to analyse the perceptions of the EU citizens about digitalisation and to highlight the differences among specific socio-demographic groups. The analysis is grounded on a composite methodology, comprising several statistical and econometric methods that provide scientific support to achieved conclusions: statistical analysis (with the primary goal to shed light on the EU citizens' perceptions about their digital technology skills), TwoStep Cluster Analysis (TSCA) (with the purpose to identify the 'digital vulnerable groups' and then the 'digital vulnerable countries' in terms of the exposure to digital divide) and logistic regression (with the main aim to quantify the impact of the relevant factors on citizens' perceptions about digitalisation). We identified a group of respondents evaluating themselves as having meagre digital skills, very afraid that robots could steal their jobs and with low usage of the internet. They are elderly, with a low level of education, manual workers or not working, with a relatively low level of income and little Internet use. The originality of our approach is given by the fact that we focused on investigating if digital divide leads to the creation of vulnerable groups (citizens and/or countries) and if there are specific patterns in terms of the perception on being skilled in the use of digital technologies in daily life or at work and of the understanding that robots replace human on the labour market. We aim to find relevant factors for the labour market to assume targeted measures that should be taken for a better match of supply and demand on the labour market and for creating a smart labour market. It is highly needed to increase the people's confidence in their skills level and to make the most of digitalisation of the societies. The results show consistent patterns in term of socio-demographic characteristics and perception towards digitalisation. The latter will have a

One of the most challenging areas of Future Smart Cities Research is the Smart Energy domain. Critical issues related to optimization, provision of smart customizable networks and sophisticated computational techniques and methods enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning need further investigation. The renewable energy (RE) is a powerful resource for the future global development in the context of climate change and resources depletion. Artificial intelligence (AI) implies new rules of organizing the activities in order to respond to these new requirements. It is necessary to improve the design of the energy infrastructure, the deployment and production of RE in order to face the multiple challenges that will affect the sector's growth and resilience.. In this research work we exploit the recent developments on the AI adoption for RE sector in European Union (EU). In this respect, we analysed (i) the efficiency of the transformation processes of the RE within the energy chain from Gross Inland Consumption to Final Energy Consumption, (ii) its implications on the structure of renewable energy by source (solar, wind, biomass etc.), (iii) the labour productivity in RE sector compared to the economy as a whole and its correlation with investments level, (iv) the implication of the adoption of AI for RE towards Future Smart Cities Research. The main contribution of this research is the development of a framework for understanding the contribution of AI in the RE sector in Europe. Another bold contribution of this work is the discussion of the implications for Future Smart Cities Research and future research directions.

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Sustainable economic development requires ensuring economic growth and development in terms of environmental protection by providing a bridge between sustainable economic growth, improvement in human health, social justice, employment and environmental protection. Our paper aims to study the situation of green jobs at the European Union level and the relationship between environment and employment, by analysing the link between employment and environmental policies. It highlights the main trends recorded at the European Union level in the field of employment policy to promote green jobs for sustainable economic development. Although there is little effect from environmental policies on employment, the effects are positive, which shows that the relationship between environmental and employment policy should be continued and improved by measures taken at both the macro-and microeconomic levels. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 9232

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