Eureko threatens court action after PZU talks break down

Pan-European insurer Eureko said yesterday talks with the government over the disputed sale of Poland's leading insurance company PZU have collapsed, and as a result it is now ready to pursue its rights in the international courts. Eureko chief executive Arnold Hoevenaars told Reuters his company was confident it would win a legal battle with the Polish government, which has postponed a deal by the previous cabinet to let a Eureko-led group buy a majority stake in PZU. Treasury Minister Wieslaw Kaczmarek has said he will not cede control of PZU, since the company's assets are needed for inward investment to revive the weak Polish economy. "At this moment, there are no talks going on. The minister has given his proposal in January, which was so far from what we had agreed upon with the former Polish government that we couldn't accept it," Hoevenaars said during a brief visit to Warsaw. "We are under an opinion that we have a legal agreement with the Polish government and we want that to be executed," he went on. Eureko has written to the European Union (EU) to complain about the blocking of the deal. If dip lomatic pressure on the Polish government fails, arbitration proceedings could begin as early as September, Hoevenaars said. (Reuters)