Banking brawl

Law and Justice (PiS) and the party's nationalist partner in the Sejm, the League of Polish Families (LPR), unleashed a tirade on central-bank chief Leszek Balcerowicz last Thursday over his refusal to back their demands to block the BPH-Pekao merger.

Balcerowicz excluded Deputy Finance Minister Cezary Mech, a critic of the merger, from a meeting of Poland's Banking Supervision Commission (KNB) with Alessandro Profumo, Unicredit's CEO.

According to Balcerowicz, Mech could not participate in the meeting and vote on the tie-up as he was not impartial and would undermine the independence of the banking supervision panel.

The central-bank chief also refused to hear the representative of the Treasury Ministry, Paweł Szałamacha, and after what turned out to be a very animated meeting, the final decision was postponed for next week.

Prime Minister Marcinkiewicz labelled Balcerowicz's actions as "unacceptable" and LPR leader Roman Giertych threatened to place Balcerowicz before the State Tribunal, which could lead to his dismissal.

The European Commission initiated punitive action against Warsaw on Wednesday for breaking the principle of free movement of capital within the EU. (Reuters)