The article examines the main problems encountered during the development of area-based partnerships in rural Bulgaria. These partnerships were created to enhance endogenous development in rural areas and have been rapidly adopted due to the requirement to run the European Union LEADER type program. Purpose of the article is to assess the practice and the problems of implementation of the LEADER approach in Bulgaria for the first membership program period and to offer recommendations to increase the motivation of local communities for the development and implementation of local development strategies. Conclusions and recommendations for improving the practice of implementation of the Leader approach is based on the results of the survey and analysis of the documents of local action groups and the Program for Rural Development, realized within a research project by a team from the University of National and World Economy Sofia.