Characteristics of farms benefiting from support for the modernization and meeting standards compared to other forms of EU assistance

The aim of the article was to determine the specificity of farms benefiting from various forms of support under the second pillar of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. This study established, that investments meeting UE standards were carried out mainly in smaller farms with intense production and a big role of livestock production. Modernization was performed with large farms, a relatively small labour resources. Entities that did not have adequate production potential, or used it inefficiently, benefited from other forms of EU assistance.