Polish system of business insurance in agriculture and related areas during the accession processes and EU membership. Selected aspects. Part II: The period of Poland’s EU membership

Abstract

The preparation period for Poland’s membership in the European Union, which lasted nearly 15 years and involved both the transposition of EU legislation, including insurance legislation, and the structuring of the national insurance system for the broadly defined agriculture and rural areas, failed (despite the adoption of the European model) to effect changes that would sufficiently help the agricultural insurance system recover from the long-lasting crisis it had faced since 1990. The opportunities offered by the Community policy, related i.a. to the expansion of the insurance portfolio to include modern types of insurance covering various types of risks, as well as the traditional form of risk transfer well-known from earlier periods in the history of Polish insurance, such as insurance mutuality, were not fully utilised either. In the post-accession period, it has been accompanied by a significant expansion of the group of structural tools for agricultural risk management, which extend beyond the area of insurance. The reasons for the structural crisis of business insurance in agriculture and related areas (in the years 1990–2004) lay both in statutory reasons (abolishment of the statutory agricultural insurance system) and mistakes in the implementation of the market insurance model in Poland. The latter were particularly manifested in the dogmatic and selective approach to the underlying principle of systemic freedom of contract in agricultural insurance, with a simultaneous approval of the legal and economic obligation to conclude such contracts in other types of insurance cover. The subject of the issues included in the present study (Parts I and II)2 is the analysis of the establishment and implementation of the insurance model of the indicated sectors against the background of legislation and practice in the unified agricultural insurance market during the implementation of processes preparing Poland’s accession to the European Union (EU) – Part I of the study, and then the implementation of the new insurance system in the market model – Part II of the study. The authors’ analysis of the legal and organisational regulations of the agricultural insurance system in force in the years 2004–2022, taking into account the regulations and other instruments of influence offered/implemented by the EU authorities and institutions, proves and confirms the claim that the negative effects of political and market transformations of the early period of market economy have been evident throughout the entire period of Poland’s membership in the EU to date. These were further aggravated by external natural and social phenomena and a range of internal causes3. The latter, related to the conclusion and execution of insurance contracts, are marked by a profound commercialisation of the contractual relationship and imbalance between the parties to the contracts under civil law (in favour of the supply side), which is characteristic of the liberal economy system. By analysing selected legal acts, available reports and scholarly literature on the subject, as well as drawing on their own experience as participants in the business insurance market in Poland, the authors of the study point first and foremost to systemic and, consequently, organisational solutions as one of the basic sources of the crisis of the business insurance system in Polish agriculture and related areas. In view of the above, the aim of Part II of the study is, therefore, first of all to identify the symptoms of irregularities causing increasing exposure to risk, and located in insurance legal relationships established in the agricultural insurance sector after Poland’s accession to the EU. They invariably demonstrate the need for a continuous modernisation of the system, taking into account both the benefits and the problems associated with common agricultural policy and agricultural risk management in the single European market. Key words: insurance crises, Polish agricultural insurance system, agricultural insurance system in the EU, agricultural insurance, risk management in agriculture.