The paper examines conditions for developing smart cities where citizens' activity and awareness of energy efficiency and energy saving are becoming a necessary prerequisite to introducing new progressive technologies. To compare the experience of different countries within one international project ITCity under the ERANet-LAC 2nd Joint Call on Research and Innovation for Latin America, Caribbean and European Union Countries, cities of Latvia, Romania, Chile and Brazil were taken as examples. ITCity project provides reinforced collaboration between EU and LAC researchers aimed at implementing digital services for smarter neighborhoods. Conditions of legislation development in the field of energy, as well as current situation in each country were discussed. A survey was conducted and factors were analysed that affected making decisions of citizens of Europe and Latin America on using or declining innovative suggestions in the field of energy efficiency.