Earlier in the week, the news coming from New Europe's brightest star was not at all promising. From MSNBC.com (with a hat tip to GSBer Peter Dabrowski):
Poland's international reputation and commitment to the rule of law are being undermined by the bitter battle between ministers and the central bank over a banking merger, the government was warned on Monday.
Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, used unusually blunt language to warn Warsaw with "great, great gravity" that the independence of Poland's central bank was of extreme importance and an essential part of the efficient functioning of the European Union.
His comments followed warnings from Leszek Balcerowicz, central bank president, who told the Financial Times the government's attacks on the independence of his institution threatened to undermine Poland's commitment to the rule of law and the hard-won stability of the zloty.
Mr Balcerowicz, architect of economic reforms that catapulted Poland from socialism to capitalism 17 years ago, has clashed with the country's conservative government over the proposed merger of two local affiliates of UniCredit, the Italian banking group, which ministers have tried to block...
As the zloty fell against the dollar and the euro on Monday, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, said he saw an urgent need for a parliamentary commission to investigate the central bank and the existing banking regulatory commission, which Mr Balcerowicz heads.
The government has tried in vain to browbeat the commission into blocking the merger of Bank Pekao, Poland's second-biggest bank, and BPH, its third-largest lender, both owned by UniCredit.
Today, it looks as if the cool heads have prevailed. From BusinessWeek online:
Polish government representatives will begin talks next week with UniCredit, aimed at resolving a dispute over the Italian bank's possible ownership of both Poland's second and third largest financial institutes, the prime minister said Friday.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz announced the negotiations after meeting earlier in the day with UniCredit head Alessandro Profumo for talks the Italian described as "constructive."...
The European Commission has said Poland may have broken EU rules on the free movement of capital and the right of companies to do business anywhere in the 25-nation bloc for refusing to clear UniCredit's takeover of BPH. UniCredit acquired the bank last year as part of an euro18 billion deal to purchase Germany's HVB Group...
"We are confident we'll get authorization for BPH and (Banking Supervisory Commission) will proceed in an objective and independent way," Dow Jones Newswires quoted Profumo as saying.
Put that one in the good news column.