Polski system ubezpieczeń gospodarczych w rolnictwie i sferach pokrewnych, w trakcie procesów akcesyjnych oraz członkostwa w UE. Wybrane aspekty Polish system of business insurance in agriculture and related spheres during accession processes and during membership in the EU. Selected aspects

Abstract

The reasons for the profound, structural crisis in business insurance of the agriculture and related spheres, rural areas and small towns (during the period from 1990 to 2004) could be found both in statutory premises and errors in the implementation of the market model of insurance in Poland. A particular manifestation of such errors was the dogmatic and selective understanding of the ideological political principle of freedom of contracts in agricultural insurance coupled with the approval for legal and economic obligation to enter into such contracts when dealing with other types of insurance protection. The subject of the issues presented in this work, which, in a way, continues an article by S. H. Nowak entitled “Rynkowy model polskich ubezpieczeń gospodarczych w rolnictwie w okresie przygotowań do wejścia do UE (lata 1990–2004)” published in “Ubezpieczenia w Rolnictwie – Materiały i Studia” magazine is to analyze the development and implementation of the model of insurance of the said sectors during performance of processes that prepared accession of Poland to the European Union (part 1 of the work), and then the implementation of the new system of insurance based on the market model versus legislation and practice on the consolidated market of agricultural insurance (part 2 of the work). The authors analysed the legal and organisational regulations for the Polish system of agricultural insurance in relation to all sectors of agricultural economy and related fields. The analysis demonstrates and confirms the argument that the crisis caused by political and market transformations of the early period of the market economy still continues and has been additionally deepened by external adverse natural and social phenomena and a series of internal causes. When analysing acts of law, available reports published by market institutions, the scientific literature on the subject, and using own experience of participants of the market of business insurance in Poland, the authors point to political solutions as one of the key sources of crisis of the system of business insurance in the Polish agriculture and sectors adjacent to it. The primary purpose of the work is to identify symptoms of abnormalities that trigger the growing dangers of risk and that are embedded in insurance legal relations which, against the background of agricultural insurance, have pointed to the urgent need to modernize the whole system.