Abstract
The most important recent political development has been the accession to the European Union in 2004 of eight former communist states and their integration to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The CAP as a largely uniform policy trying to cater for the needs of the very varied agricultural industry in 27 states across both Eastern and Western Europe is itself undergoing a radical transformation as politicians attempt to shift the main focus of its activities from production subsidies to a more broadly conceived sustainable rural development strategy. The paper concludes that for these changes to be managed effectively and to support stable and sustainable rural landscapes there must be publicly-led regional strategies in place.