ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the efficient, equitable and sustainable management of the rural economy in the light of their changed understanding of the forces that animate and shape it. It examines the 1995 Rural White Papers and clarifies their endogenous perspective on rural development. The White Papers vision is in keeping with endogenous models of rural development. In the post-war period, the efficiency of the rural economy was seen in terms of primary production, particularly the agricultural sector. The recent reforms of the CAP have involved a partial opening-up of European agriculture to world markets, and increasingly EU agricultural policy subject to international rule under the auspices of the World Trade Organization. Agricultural policy, in turn, becomes rural environmental management policy. The classification of rural land for planning purposes should no longer rest solely on its food-growing potential, but should embrace other sustainability criteria.
