The reforms proposed by the authors intend to ensure the economic, social and environmental sustainability of rural regions and place agricultural policy on a fundamentally different basis. The scope of community and state intervention will change. Payments linked to production will be cancelled and the provision of public goods will be rewarded instead. At the same time, measures aimed at enhancing the viability of the rural economy and society will become more significant. The depth of the changes calls for a new name expressing better the new approach, so instead of CAP the use of a more justified name is suggested: Common Agricultural and Rural Policy (CARP). This paper outlines the vision and the major proposals we suggest to meet the above mentioned goals.