The aim of this paper is to attempt to assess the legal regulations and directions of development of the cooperative movement in Poland in the face of new challenges resulting from the Common Agricultural Policy (climate change, renewable energy, water management, biodiversity, accompanying measures in the dairy sector, innovation, introduction of milk package due to the milk reform and the abolition of the quotas by April 2015). The analyses concentrate on selected issues, namely those concerning agricultural cooperatives in Poland, including the types of such entities and their legal bases. Additionally, the article presents the issues of the Common Agricultural Policy, in particular its objectives for the period 2014- 2020 and their impact on the development of the cooperative movement in Poland. Then, the paper focuses on the modernization of the legal regulations relating to the structure of cooperatives in the context of the amended Italian regulations.
Keywords: Cooperatives, agriculture, rural areas, common agricultural policy, agricultural producer groups, milk market