Institut de recherche sur les lois fondamentales de l'Univers

After a brief introduction to the physics of handbag factorization for hard
exclusive reactions the analysis of meson electroproduction within the so-called
handbag approach is reviewed. The main part of the talk is focussed on the
discussion of the generalized parton distributions, the hadronic matrix elements
which embody the soft physics. Current parameterizations of these matrix el-
ements, their extraction from experiment as well as their main features are
discussed. A summary of the present knowledge of the generalized parton dis-
tribution as extracted from exclusive meson electroproduction is given and con-
sequences for other reactions as for instance deeply virtual Compton scattering,
drawn.