A growing régionalisation of the EU member states combines with the European integration process to develop new forms of "multi-level governance ". In the field of agricultural and rural policies, the article analyses the new patterns of the relation between EU and regions policies, and consequently the possible prospects of Europe-regions driven agricultural and rural policies. EU integration and regions autonomous policies have been closely related through changes in the CAP and rural development programs (structural funds) based on European norms and subsidies, which results in both policy levels supporting each other with a decrease in the traditional role of central state. But this process cannot be simply analyzed as a continuous move of institutions towards a functional and necessary "modernization ", for several reasons: risks of cohesion problems; a lack of correlation between regional policy creativity and political autonomy; growing difficulties in defining and defending national policies in the most decentralized member states.
