ABSTRACT
Regulation 2078 brought to the essentially national agendas a series of additional European Union (EU) imperatives; the need to integrate environmental and agricultural policy, the need to reduce EU agricultural overproduction, and the need to support farm incomes. The considerable variety in patterns of adoption in scheme models is one of the most persistent features of EU agri-environmental policy (AEP). EU AEP has been both conceived and implemented following an essentially north European agenda. The chapter reviews the agri-environmental background of the Member States and analyses the varied development of distinct national agri-environmental agendas. Though Member States have been required by Regulation 2078 to submit national agri-environmental programmes, the implementation and operation of AEP is essentially a sub-national and local concern. While Sweden has sought to use agri-environmental schemes largely to promote landscape values, Germany has focused its attention on reducing farm-based pollution and maintaining, in certain regions, a distinctive agricultural structure.
