The European Capital of Culture (ECoC) initiative, which is aimed at highlighting the diversity of European urban cultures, has brought positive effects in many of the supported cities over the past 30 years. These include the dissemination of positive features from other ECoC models, such as city regeneration, an improved urban image, a boost to tourism and an increase in the influence of the creative sector in the city economy and culture. There are several areas of consideration (which we call “dilemmas”) within the ECoC programme, which can be summarised under the headings of cultural, economic and spatial dilemmas. Through an analysis of the Košice 2013 ECoC in this way, we identify a shift to the concept of culture-led regeneration, which is stimulated by the young organisers and entrepreneurs, who are bringing in knowledge from other European cultural centres.

The efficiency of public resource use and its strategic framework with respect to sustainable public procurement policies, such as the most economically advantageous tender (hereafter MEAT), has become an important topic nowadays. Therefore, the study examines the determinants of savings creation within MEAT in Central European countries. It uses a dataset published in the Tenders Electronic Daily database in 2017–2018 about contract award notices and carries out a generalized linear model to study the determinants of savings creation within MEAT. The findings suggest that when services are procured within MEAT, the savings are considerably higher than compared to works. If the framework agreement takes place in a procurement process, the savings are significantly smaller. In cases where the subject of procurement is not co-financed by EU funds, the savings are higher than in the case that they are. If an open type of procurement is used, the savings are seemingly smaller than in cases where a non-open type of procurement takes place. When the contract is awarded to a single supplier, the savings are higher than otherwise. A higher number of total offers, as well as a higher number of offers from small and medium-sized enterprises, induce higher savings. It can be concluded that the use of sustainable public procurement subtly reduces the creation of savings.

In recent years, the transportation landscape has seen a notable shift towards shared mobility, driven by its advantages over traditional systems fraught with inefficiencies. This shift has ushered in demand-responsive transport (DRT) systems, enabled by mobile technology. DRT offers a promising solution for the sustainability of public transport, also for rural Slovakia; however, higher individual journey costs and the necessity for online booking create adoption barriers for this new form. This paper conducts a thorough willingness-to-pay analysis in seven rural Slovak settlements, with the goal of understanding variations and comparing the findings with the existing research. Location, household size, age, car and train usage, and previous experiences with bus transport significantly impact the willingness to pay. Consequently, tailored DRT strategies are necessary for different target groups. To maximize the efficiency of this service, integrating DRT into the regional or national public transportation network is recommended. Insights from this study hold significant implications for policymakers tasked with transforming regional transportation, particularly by integrating DRT into fixed-route bus systems.