A PROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF THE CAP IN RURAL ECONOMIES AND RELATED RESEARCH NEEDS: THE CASE OF GREECE

This study was conducted in the framework of the European research project ‘CAP-IRE: Assessing the multiple Impacts of the Common Agricultural Policies on Rural Economies’. The CAP-IRE project aims to develop concepts and tools to support future CAP design and implementation, based on an improved understanding of long-term socio-economic mechanisms of change in rural areas. It addresses economic, social and environmental issues in rural areas and their connection to the CAP, focusing in particular on post-2013 issues and referring to the CAP as a whole, hence including all measures involved in both the first and second pillars. An important role of these objectives is played by the Local Participatory Networks (LPN) that were set up in each case study area of the project. This paper reports the results obtained from the LPN in Macedonia and Thrace, the case study area in Greece. The results are related with the most relevant policy issues and research questions in this area.