In this paper, we have analysed the level of advancement in circular economy (CE) in the EU-28 countries. First, we used a synthetic measure to examine CE advancement in EU countries in each of the Eurostat CE distinguished areas, i.e., production and consumption, waste management, secondary raw materials, and competitiveness and innovation. For the empirical analysis, we applied 17 Eurostat indicators to the CE areas. To find the synthetic measure in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016, we used multidimensional comparative analysis, i.e., a zero unitarisation method. Second, based on the synthetic measures of the CE areas, we created a general synthetic measure of the CE advancement of the EU-28 countries as well as the countries’ rankings. Third, we classified the countries into groups according to their level of advancement in CE, i.e., high level, medium–high level, medium–low level and low level groups. Finally, we applied a similarity measure to evaluate the correlation between obtained rankings in two most extreme moments in the period of analysis (2010, 2016). Our analysis covers all EU member states, as well as “old” and “new” EU countries separately. Our results confirm that highly developed Benelux countries, i.e., Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium, have the highest CE advancement level. Malta, Cyprus, Estonia and Greece are the least advanced in CE practice. Apart from that, on average, there is some progress in CE implementation, significant disproportions between the EU countries were observed, especially among the “new” member states.

The aim of the article is to evaluate the significance of the European Union funds supporting the cohesion policy, which the Eastern Polish local governments benefit from in order to improve their residents’ quality of life. Empirical data used in the research concerns five provinces located in Eastern Poland and the research data comes from the sources of the Polish Main Statistical Office in Warsaw. The temporal scope of the study encompasses the period 2004-2018. The choice of the spatial scope of the research is justified by the peripheral location of Eastern Poland, as well as the fact that this region benefits from the EU Programme financially supporting local government units. The article elaborates on the use of the EU funds aiming to enhance the cohesion policy performed by local governments of Eastern Poland and the residents’ opinion on the improvement of their quality of life. The research proves that the provinces of Eastern Poland are particularly qualified to gain financial funding from the European Union due to their lower level of Gross Domestic Product per capita compared to the country as a whole. According to the residents of Eastern Poland, their quality of life has improved and can be treated as comparable to the country’s average, even though slightly worse. The research confirms the elaboration’s hypothesis that the use of the EU funds by the local governments in Eastern Poland results in the increased country cohesion measured by the improvement of residents’ quality of life. This, in turn, constitutes a vital outcome of the European Union cohesion policy.

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The aim of this paper is to assess the significance of organic food purchases by consumers in Poland – motivated by supporting the local economy – against the background of other factors shaping consumer behaviour. The empirical material consists of the results of a survey among 850 consumers of organic food in Poland.  The empirical material was analysed using Pearson’s chi-squared test of independence and the non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test. The study shows that for a large group of organic food consumers, supporting the local economy appears to be an important motive for its purchase. The only factor significantly differentiating the two groups of consumers (motivated or not motivated by supporting the local economy) was the level of family income. The study allowed us to conclude that among consumers motivated by supporting the local economy, attitudes described as reflexive localism (the motive of supporting the local economy associated with concern for the natural environment) predominate.

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