FUNCTIONING OF THE POLISH LAG IN THE CONTEXT OF THE LEADER INITIATIVE

Abstract

Changes in perception of the rural areas from the perspective of agriculture only gave the impulse for emergence of a new direction in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU). The Leader initiative established in 1991 aims at activating rural communities and rational local resources management. Local action groups (LAG) that assume the form of agreements of three local sectors (representatives of community, entrepreneurs and representatives of authorities) are the units implementing the Leader approach. The questionnaire based survey covering 44% of the LAGs operating in Poland was conducted. Thanks to that survey knowledge of the specificity and outcomes of their work was obtained.