Podstawy budowy Wspólnego Systemu Ubezpieczeń Rolnych w Unii Europejskiej

External climatic and environmental conditions are considered the greatest threats for agricultural production and production infrastructure in European countries. They include intensity of atmospheric precipitation, unfavourable temperature distribution, humidity, sun exposure and, often connected with that, degree of occurrence of plant diseases and pests. Those factors cause, for example, hurricanes, hail, droughts, fires, floods, frosts and other natural disasters13. At the same time, there is a discussion among specialists concerning defining new threats to agricultural production. They include, posing threats not only to agriculture, to a large extent of certainty caused by man, climatic changes and, more and more often mentioned as a great risk, unrecognised influence of genetic manipulations on the environment. The analysis of existing agricultural insurance systems indicates big differences between individual countries. According to the author, the threats indicated in the article require creating theoretical foundations of the common insurance programme of the agricultural sector for all countries of the European Union. For proper management of risks in agriculture, two basic strategies should be taken into consideration. They concern programmes of production diversification or the strategy of sharing and transferring a risk such as participation in funds and mutual insurance, commercial insurance, production contracts, or futures market. The mentioned instruments, particularly insurances used within a consistent programme of protection of agriculture against effects of natural disasters, are the main subject of this study. Insurance, according to many specialists, is the best risk management tool. Governments in many countries support forming crop and livestock insurance systems, treating it as a form of subsidising and supporting the development of agriculture. Then the insurance of basic forms of crops often function as obligatory insurance or in connection with loans given to farms, both ordinary or partly refunded by individual governments. Moreover, so-called disaster funds are annually introduced and managed by governments in many countries. It should be noticed that such interference in insurance market may unfavourably influence the development of insurance products market in agriculture. Accepting the significance of the discussed problems, the European Union is creating, within the common agricultural policy, foundations of general provisions (in accordance with WTO agreements) regulating public support in this sector aiming at facilitation of risk management connected with agricultural production. One of the subject of considerations of circles responsible for the common agricultural policy is creating assumptions for appropriate strategies of risk and crisis management in the agricultural sector. In March 2000 the European Union presented a collection of regulations on the state support, regulating possibilities of financing assistance for agriculture from state budgets. In Chapter 11, for instance, there are provisions on conditions of granting budget means for removal losses in agricultural production caused by climatic anomalies. All decisions and proposals of solutions will certainly be carried out in relation to the whole Community. The herald may be the resolution prepared in 2006 by the European Parliament on risk management in crisis situations in agriculture (2005/2053(IN1)).