The rural development policy is a response to the changing role and place of agriculture in the structure of the economy. Over 75% of people employed in rural areas in Poland are no longer connected with a farm, deriving income from non-agricultural sources. The aim of the authors' considerations in this article is to demonstrate that contemporary rural areas in Poland and Europe need an effective support policy, especially in the area of ​​creating good quality non-agricultural jobs. The main conclusion formulated by the authors is the need to change the development paradigm of rural areas, in which the active use of available resources (endo- and exogenous) located in rural areas is currently necessary and indispensable to respond to global challenges. The analysis is conducted on the basis of the literature on the subject, which highlights the conditions for implementing such a policy in the European Union and Poland, and the results of the authors' own research.