This article presents the transformation of foreign trade in 10 post-socialist countries, current members of the EU. Special focus is given to the more significant role these countries began to play in global value chains (GVCs) as a result of liberalisation processes and integration within the EU. In addition, the article evaluates their place in global vertical specialisation. To locate each country on a global value chain and to compare them with selected countries, more complex methods of measuring the level of participation of European post-socialist countries in GVCs were employed. These methods allow the position of a country downstream or upstream in GVCs to be established. We concluded that (a) post-socialist countries differ in the levels of their participation in GVCs. Countries that have stronger links with Western European countries, especially with Germany, are more integrated; (b) a large share of post-socialist countries’ exports pass through Western European GVCs; (c) most exporters in Central and Eastern Europe are positioned in downstream segments of production rather than upstream markets.

The paper aims at determining the role played by funds from the European Union in the development of renewable energy sources in Poland in the context of European Union cohesion policy. We have derived data from the official European Funds Portal for the size of projects and the financial support obtained from the European Union for the use of a specific renewable energy source. We have analyzed all (928) projects related to hydro- and geothermal energy, biomass (together with biogas), wind, and solar energy implemented in all 16 voivodships (administrative regions of the second order, NUTS 2). It must be mentioned that, in the programming period 2007–2013, the available European Union funds made it possible to obtain the largest support for all investments in renewable energy sources in Poland so far. The total value of the projects co-financed from these funds has amounted to 2 billion euro. Analyzing the value of investments in technologies based on varied renewable energy sources, an evident disproportion in either the size of particular installations or the costs of investments is observed. We demonstrate that large wind farms constitute more than 60% of the total value of investments in renewable sources subsided by the European Union. Small projects have also been subsided, but mainly those related to solar energy. Generally, the wind energy investments are established in northern and western parts of Poland, including Zachodniopomorskie, Pomorskie, Dolnośląskie, and Łódzkie voivodships, while the solar energy investments are found in the eastern and southern parts of Poland.

The paper focuses on demographic and social changes caused by peri-urban development in rural areas in Latvia, Poland, and Germany after the system transformation began. The article analyses peri-urban development as a mostly rural phenomenon, and as a process of rural displacement. Rural development interacts with urban influences, changing the role and functions of rural areas. This is reflected by a departure from agricultural functions, more intensive construction activities and changes in land use. This also includes intensive socio-demographic and socio-cultural changes. Simultaneously there are significant population inflows, both urban and rural (from more peripheral rural areas), an increase in population density, changes of population structure etc. The paper shows that peri-urban development as a general rural trend began later in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe (after the transformation) than in Western Europe, but the processes and phenomena presently observed in Eastern and Western Europe are similar.

Undoubtedly, one of the greatest challenges to civilisation today is the need to fulfil commitments to build a just and caring global society. These commitments also apply to the tourism sector. The aim of the article was to determine how to identify opportunities for sustainable tourism development based on cultural heritage in medium-sized cities whose tourism assets can hardly be considered outstanding. This is an even more significant problem, as even in conditions of relatively low tourist traffic cultural tourism may have an unsustainable character if the relevant policy is pursued and the attitude of the inhabitants are inappropriate. The authors proposed to complement the Triple Bottom Line used to assess the sustainability of a destination with the assessment of the local authority’s attitude towards cultural development and characteristics regarding the involvement of the inhabitants. The study has shown that even if the cultural assets of medium-sized cities are not outstanding, they can play a role in tourism development. It is important to remember that their advantage lies in their locality, and that expecting too much of an economic effect of developing tourism can deprive them of this advantage permanently.

The study aims to present the structure and analyse the distribution of economic activities comprising the creative sector (covering 10 sections of PKD 2007 - the Polish Classification of Activities based on NACE rev. 2 - the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community) of the Polish economy in the context of the potential basis for the formation of creative clusters in Poland. The study concentrates on the numbers of creative firms based in all 3,076 Polish gminas (306 urban gminas, 1,576 rural gminas and 597 urban-rural gminas; in the latter, 597 urban areas and 597 rural areas are considered separately). As found, most of the firms are involved in architectural and engineering activities; technical testing and analysis (M 71) and other professional, scientific and technical activities (M 74). It has also been established that some local incubators of the potential clusters of creative industries form eight distinct centres, the most prominent of which is the Warszawa centre. The identification of areas with higher concentrations of creative firms has demonstrated that in Poland, like in western countries, creative firms tend to locate in large cities (Warszawa, Kraków, Poznań, Wrocław and Tri-City) and in the regions around them.