With regard to agri-environmental schemes (AES) under Regulation (EC) 1257/99, we suggest that their ineffectiveness, inefficiency, and divers uptake is inherent to the way they are institutionalised in the European CAP framework. Based on experiences of the GRANO research project that initiated two Agri-Environmental Forums in Brandenburg (Germany) to integrate local actors directly into designing and implementing local AES we argue that the process of designing AES can be conceptualised as a complex negotiation process at Laender level. The related institutional settings shape possible outcomes and scheme designs. With only "passive support" for decentralised and participatory approaches yet compulsory complex bureaucratic procedures on part of the EU, there are no incentives for Laender administrations to actively support those approaches.