The target group for the questionnaire, developed by Latvian National Rural Network (NRN) were rural inhabitants. Latvian NRN chose two ways to collect the necessary information – via questionnaire on NRN’s internet home page www.laukutikls.lv (264 respondents) and by organizing open discussions in different regions of Latvia (48 discussions). In total opinions of 954 rural inhabitants were collected.

Why do we need a European common agricultural policy?

There were different opinions on the necessity of CAP, however the main conclusions for the future development of CAP are listed below:

 Providing of equal conditions, rights and requirements for farmers from all EU member states, including fair and equal competition possibilities for producers of agricultural products from all EU member states, considering differences of EU regions;

 Sustainability and diversity of agriculture (big-small agricultural enterprises, possibilities of diversifications)

 Ensuring inhabitants of EU with safe and high quality food for reasonable prices;

 Development of rural areas as space for working and living, accessibility of services;

 Stimulation of forestry development;

 Conservation of environment;