Polish banks
In Poland a struggle between the government and the national regulatory authority over banking mergers is escalating. On 15 March, the Polish parliament, reacting against a proposed merger of Polish banks Pekao and BPH, decided to begin a process establishing a panel to examine all bank mergers since the fall of communism. The disputed deal is an off-shoot of the larger takeover by Italian bank Unicredito of Germany’s HVB bank: the two parties to that deal owned Pekao and BPH respectively.
Leszek Balcerowicz, a well-known economic liberal and the head of Poland’s central bank and of the banking commission wants to approve the deal. He has warned that political interference on the issue would threaten Poland’s hard-won rule of law. However Prime Minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, has warned that the merger could lead to the closure of branches and the loss of jobs and should not be allowed.
The European Commission, which approved the Unicredito/HVB deal in October 2005 is highly concerned over the Polish governments’s interference. In a related development, the Commission, on 16 March, launched a consultation on cross-border banking mergers and how to improve the supervisory process.
The row, highlighting as it does a protectionist, nationalistic zeal on the part of the government, threatens to compound fears on the tenor of the government of Mr Marcinkiewicz and the ultra-conservative views of Lech Kaczynski, first voiced on his election as President in October 2005 (see EurActiv 25 Oct 2005).
France and Spain
In France and Spain, interference has come in proposed mergers in the energy sector. In France, Italian company Enel was looking to takeover French energy provider Suez but, to block the deal, the government engineered a merger of Suez with the state-controlled Gaz-de-France.
In Spain, the government has gone as far as passing emergency legislation to block a takeover by German energy company E.ON of the Spanish incumbent Endesa.
