International Cooperation

KRUS acts on the international arena. The membership in the International Social Security Association (ISSA) plays very important role in the international contacts of KRUS and it gives the Fund a right to take part in activities of ISSA, in its international trainings, conferences and meetings. The Fund is particularly active at the meetings organized by the Section of Agriculture.

The Agricultural Social Insurance Fund plays an important part in the International Association of Agricultural Medicine and Rural Health (IAAMRH).

Since 2000, KRUS has been a member with full rights of the European Forum of Insurances Against Accidents at Work and Occupational Diseases. Activity of the Forum aims at exchange of experiences and information in the field of an effective protection against professional risks at work.
As to the contacts with other European social security institutions, cooperation with the French insurance institution - Mutualité Sociale Agricole (MSA) plays the main role. The French system of farmers' social security was a model for the newly created system of farmers' social insurance in Poland.
In 1993, the realization of the agreement on cooperation between KRUS and MSA, signed on 9 October 1992, in Bordeaux, France, was embarked. On the basis of that agreement, 49 regional branches of the Fund were connected, in the sense of partnership, with 54 departmental funds of the MSA, and their cooperation was based on the exchange of groups of specialists in various fields of social security. The closer cooperation was started with signing The Protocol of Cooperation Between KRUS and MSA in the Field of Development, Modernization and Improvement of the Polish Farmers' Social Protection on 19 December 2000.

KRUS has also cooperated for many years with the State Social Insurance Fund Board of the Republic of Lithuania. SODRA; the agreement with SODRA was signed in 1993. The cooperation, that results from the agreement, is based on exchanging the groups of personnel in order to show them in practice both insurance systems in two countries with organization of work in their insurance institutions.
The fact that KRUS had been accepted as a member of ISSA and that it had started its activity in the ISSA Section of Agriculture, resulted in cooperation with the German Federation of Agricultural Professional Associations (Bundesverband der Landwirtschaftlichen Berufsgenossenschaften).

The common activity of the managements of KRUS and BLB in the Section of Agriculture increased their interest in the systems of social insurance and farmers' social protection in both countries. The agreement on cooperation between both institutions was signed in 1999. A cooperation of the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund with the Austrian Institution of Farmers. Social Insurance (Sozialversicherungsanstalt der Bauern) has also started with common actions in ISSA Section of Agriculture.

Worth mentioning in the international cooperation area of KRUS are also trading contacts with producers and tenderers of computer, office, medical and rehabilitation equipment and also its presence on the international fairs and exhibitions of such equipment. Position of KRUS on the international arena becomes stronger.
Now, the Fund seems to be an interesting partner for many foreign social security institutions, which want to establish closer contact with the Polish partner.

back