Summary:

The paper outlines problems of rural areas shaping in the EU against the background of permanent and sustainable development concept. The principles and several steps of common agricultural policy, structural and regional policies have been characterized. It has been stated that these policies are strictly bound with each other and they are subject to evolution. Agricultural policy bases on the price – income policy and structural policy stimulation, structural policy concerns the influence on production factors assisting changes in rural areas, and regional policy stimulates reorganization of agriculture, multifunctional development of rural areas and diminishing of negative differences between regions. The aim of these activities is the creation of value and economically sustainable position of rural areas, especially as an environment for living, working, recreation in natural conditions, as well as positive development of agricultural structures. In the last decades the UE gained intrinsic progress in the LFA reduction – which especially concerns the regions of Ireland and Portugal. Sustainable shaping of environment and rural land management is being implemented by the system of spatial planning, in the range of agricultural land management, village renewal and ecological – landscape planning. The concept of sustainable and permanent development, which finds its expression in the so called integrated order – in spite of the lack of the precision definition, or coherent models of economic growth – determines an import civilisation challenge.