Distance education as one of the new and perspective forms of completing higher education increases in popularity around the world. At the same time, the development of this model of education generates new problems: organization of the study process and information security. Distance learning allows solving a problem of accessibility of higher education in case of social issues, working hours, etc. Therefore, distance education is of major importance in increasing the learning efficiency. The Latvian model of distance education is passing the stage of formation and approbation in the market of educational services. However, the creation of system of distance education should not be the final step for higher education institutions as such; furthermore, this process would not be developed without students. Therefore, the objective of the present research is to find out the opinion of the students on the expediency of distance education. More than 850 students from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Serbia and Belarus have participated in the research. Results of the research have revealed that the traditional form of education based on communication between the lecturer and the student is more demanded among the students. At present, distance learning, unfortunately, cannot be characterised by stable demand. In order to increase the demand for such model of education, public presentations and discussions should be made, and media support is also necessary.

The agricultural and food production sectors have a predominant role in the bioeconomy of the European Union (EU), followed by wood production. These sectors make significant contributions not only to national economies but also to local areas, in particular the rural ones. Although the digitalisation of businesses within the bioeconomy sector transforms the enterprises, improving the value chains and creating benefits for the rural communities where these enterprises are situated, there are still many barriers to digitalisation. This study has a dual aim: first, to analyse bioeconomy in the EU and the state of digitalisation in the EU, and second, to assess the barriers of the bioeconomy sector and ways to support digital transformation within this sector, focusing on agriculture as the main contributor to bioeconomy in the EU, taking Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland as the case studies. The cluster analysis was explored for the study of the digitalisation and R&D indicators of the EU. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to determine digitalisation scenarios of the bioeconomy sector in Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. Four stakeholder groups were selected as experts for the study: (i) national government, (ii) advisory and extension, (iii) research, and (iv) entrepreneurship. The findings of the cluster analysis identified 4 clusters in the EU, showing different levels of digitalisation. Strong links between digitalisation and R&D were also found. In this context, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland were assigned to the low-performing cluster. The results of the AHP for the case studies of Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland indicate the overall need for prioritization of support for digital transformation using national and EU funding to achieve better results. Nonetheless, AHP findings also suggested that the opinions of the national government, consulting, and research experts were more aligned throughout all three countries, but the entrepreneurs’ opinions differed from these groups. These findings provide quantitative information regarding digitalisation in the bioeconomy of the EU. They also offer additional qualitative information about scenarios and criteria for increasing the level of digitalisation in the bioeconomy sector in Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, which could be useful for policy-makers. This research could also have practical implications for shaping the future trajectory of the bioeconomy policy.

In this study, for the 2012M1-2020M1 period, the relationship between Poland’s real effective exchange rate and its food and animal exports were examined by the bounds test. The stationary analyses of variables were examined by the ADF and PP tests. According to the results of a cointegration test, a cointegration relation among the real effective exchange rate, food and live animal exports, as well as industrial production was determined. It was also concluded that the real effective exchange rate has a long-term negative impact on Poland's food and live animal exports. This research also established that a 1% increase in the real effective exchange rate in the long-term would decrease Poland's food and animal exports by 3.091%. Also, industrial production has a positive impact on Poland’s food and animal exports, as expected. It was determined that a 1% increase in industrial production would increase Poland’s food and animal exports by 2.803%. On the other hand, the error correction term coefficient was found to be -0.119, indicating that 11% of the imbalance in the short-term will be recovered in the next period.

The main objective of the paper is to show the new challenges for education that arose in Poland from 2019-2021, and the use of e-learning methods. This new approach, and the purpose and added value of this study, is to enrich the knowledge of the use of new teaching and research methods gained during the Covid-19 pandemic and applicability to pandemics generally, as well as continued use of these methods afterwards.. To achieve the objective, the method of literature analysis and critique was used, as well as a ratio analysis based on historical data from Statistics Poland (GUS), EUROSTAT and the author’s own first-hand observations as a university educator. The research results helped to formulate several conclusions regarding the factors which influence effective e-learning, such as: internet access and quality; the availability of adequate software, hardware and other tools; and the digital competence of teachers and students. A short SWOT analyse is also presented to highlight key considerations that are crucial for the future of elearning.

The paper is dedicated to the analysis the financing situation and level of decentralization in the municipalities in Poland and Turkey. The analysis covers years 2012–2016. Due to decentralisation reforms in both countries the basic level of subnational governments are municipalities. The decentralization process includes three categories: political, administrative, and fiscal. Because of above the municipalities in Poland and Turkey are various with the number of units, average municipal area, average municipality size, sources of the revenues and directions of money spending.