European Commission may take legal action against Gov't over bank merger

The EU Commissioner for the internal market Charlie McCreevy revealed yesterday that the Commission was not satisfied with the Polish government's explanations concerning the refusal for taking over of BPH by the Italian UniCredito. He added that the appropriate legal services were asked to examine the possibility of launching legal steps against Poland, which means that the case may go to the European Court of Justice. Two weeks ago, the Polish government appealed against the Commission's decision from October approving the merger of UniCredito with HVB and as a consequence the merger of Pekao and BPH. "Poland did not violate European law and is waiting for the decision of the European Court of Justice," stated the Treasury Ministry spokesperson Marcin Mazurek. (Parkiet, p. 1; Puls Biznesu, p. 8) E.B