Bivona, Giuseppe2013-12-302013-12-302007Przegląd Prawa Rolnego, 2007 Nr 2, s. 46-58.978-83-232181-7-31897-7626http://hdl.handle.net/10593/9499The purpose o f the present paper is to confront the policies towards agriculture and environment in the European Union. Both are indispensable for the human life, both interact with each other and influence each other. Those relationships may, however, also trigger off a conflict o f interests. While agricultural activity violates the integrity o f the natural environment, it is the environment that provides „conditions” necessary for carrying out that activity, and those are not always favourable or desired. The development o f environmental regulations within EU agricultural law may be seen as a historical process. Initially, the few regulations that existed concerned the structural policy in agriculture. But they developed over time and became much more extensive. Today, common agricultural policy serves to maintain agricultural activity in rural areas and to protect the environment from degradation in a manner coherent with sustainable development. In the light o f the Community legislation, conflicting interests o f agriculture and environment may be reconciled where they come in contact, i.e. in rural areas. The urban development mechanisms developed under the common agricultural policy serve to achieve that goal, as, under the Community legislation, their key objective is preservation o f the natural environment. The concern for the maintenance of rural areas and improvement of the environment is not exhausted in the traditional measures o f the structural policy, but it also links with every initiative o f the common agricultural policy.plArtykuł