EU Agricultural Policy and the Regional Differentiation of Agriculture in Poland

The paper addresses the spatial structure of agriculture in Poland whose spatial development is analysed from the beginning of the transition towards a market economy up until the country's forthcoming accession to the EU and the correlated implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (Cap). The paper analyses the social, political and economic forces behind the process of progressive differentiation in the regional structure of agriculture which have produced the existing disparities between the dynamic farming of the central and western areas and the semi-subsistence farming in the east. The analysis also explores the linkages between the spatial evolution of agriculture and the increasing disparities in terms of regional unemployment and development. In such a framework the Cap's implementation by producing differential effects in relation to each region's agricultural structure will lead to further polarisation of the spatial structure of agriculture and may exacerbate existing disparities. Therefore, the Cap's contribution towards a balanced regional development depends upon its capacity to adapt itself to the needs of a comparatively backward agricultural system (with respect to that of the present fifteen members) and the specificity of its spatial structure. Consequently, it is of fundamental importance that sector intervention be complemented by an appropriate mix of rural development, regional and territorial policies