156 mandatory and compulsory insurances* are provided for in Polish laws and international laws applicable to Poland. Moreover, the insurance-related legal acts are so unimaginably chaotic that it took three months for the experts to determine the number of compulsory insurances. As a result of their efforts, PIU may present the first study on mandatory insurance in Poland which is of such a comprehensive nature.
The report entitled “The Legal Status of Mandatory Insurance in Poland” [“Stan prawny ubezpieczeń obowiązkowych w Polsce”] was contracted by the Polish Insurance Association to the Insurance Law Department of the Nicolas Copernicus University of Toruń. The work was managed by one of Poland’s most outstanding experts in civil law, Professor Eugeniusz Kowalewski. This is the first, so elaborate, study in this filed on the market. The publication was presented for the first time today, at a conference convened by PIU, entitled “The role of insurance in national economy and business development”. Patronage over the conference was taken by the Ministry of Economy as well as the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Janusz Piechociński. The authors of the report emphasize that Poland is in the European lead when it comes to countries with the largest number of mandatory insurances. It is France that has the greatest number – over 200 types of mandatory policies. ‘Most of us, when asked about mandatory insurance, would refer only to the third party liability motor insurance policies. Some would also add the obligatory insurance for travel agents. However, it turns out that nearly 160 types of activity are based on insurance, and could not be performed without it,’ says Jan Grzegorz Prądzyński, PIU President.
The authors of the Report believe that the greatest problem related to mandatory insurance is the legislative chaos. The best proof to support this claim is the fact that, so far, no similar analysis was made. ‘In fact no one has so far been in a position to answer the question of how many mandatory kinds of insurance exist in Poland. Unfortunately, the legislative process is characterised by enormous arbitrariness and confusion. To this extent that there are regulations stipulating the necessity to be insured without identifying the sum insured. Additionally, the trouble is that a large portion of the regulations originates outside the Ministry of Finance which takes great care of the logics and order in the insurance laws,’ emphasizes Jan Grzegorz Prądzyński.
Today, insurance law experts are commonly convinced that there are too many mandatory insurances in Poland. ‘Not every type of activity requires a mandatory insurance and not for every type of activity a compulsory insurance policy is the best form of security. Additionally, there is no legislative control over the insurance. They are dispersed. In fact, the list of mandatory insurances is continuously expanded. In recent year we have seen an increasing number of mandatory insurances in addition to the third party liability cover, e.g. various types of guarantees,’ says Jan Grzegorz Prądzyński.
