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Subject and purpose of work: The article presents the concept of smart villages formulated in EU documents. Its purpose is to characterize the concept of smart villages - its assumptions, possibilities and implementation limitations.

In the discussion of regional development factors in recent years, more and more importance has been attributed to territory, locality, site specificity and endogenous resources, as evidenced on theoretical grounds by the concept of territorial capital (Camagni 2008) and regional, place-based policy. This article aims to identify the elements of territorial capital that play a key role in the process of changing the development path of an underdeveloped region - Podkarpackie - as well as ascertaining what consequences territorial capital has for development planning within regional policy. The research highlights the importance of the immobile and intangible development factors - a high level of social capital, extensive networks and the ability to cooperate - which have helped to eliminate the limitations resulting from the weakness of other factors (especially material factors, such as private capital and low GDP).

Poland joined the European Union on 1 May 2004. By 2007, this had resulted in Poland being the greatest beneficiary of the European cohesion policy due to its low per capita GDP by purchasing power parity at the voivodeship level. The scale of European Structural and Investment Funds brought the possibility for a fundamental acceleration of socio-economic growth in Polish regions. The European Union gradually modified the directions of intervention under the framework of the European cohesion policy, initially orienting this activity principally towards cohesion, but from 2010 directing it mainly towards competitiveness. Of particular significance was the Europe 2020 strategy (2010). In Poland its arrangements were deferred until the signing of the Partnership Agreement for the period 2014-2020, which established extensive support for innovation, competitiveness and the R&D sector. In the final part of the paper, conclusions and recommendations for regional policy are elaborated.