Gold or glitter?
Poland's largest telecommunications services provider, Telekomunikacja Polska (TP), has requested that Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński reconsider the firm's status as a strategic company for the state.
The firm is included in the list of institutions considered strategic in a bill adopted by the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers on August 9. The bill is to replace current regulations on strategic companies from 2005. The status of "strategic" is given to companies considered vital for maintaining public order and security. Such companies operate in the mining, railway, fuels, energy and telecom sectors.
One of the key consequences of strategic-firm status is the government's so-called "golden-veto," which gives the State Treasury veto rights over some company decisions including dissolution, moving abroad, and change of activity.
TP claims it does not meet the necessary requirements for becoming a strategic company. The key criterion is having the infrastructure for sending the public broadcast signal that would cover 70 percent of the country. The company responsible for sending the signal is Emitel, a daughter company of TP in which the government already has a golden veto.
TP was supported by the Polish Confederation of Private Employers "Lewiatan," but a much stronger ally in TP's efforts may be the European Commission. The EC issued a formal demand for the change of the law on golden veto in June. It claimed the golden veto limits the freedom of activity and violates the right of other shareholders, especially in privatized companies.
According to Michał Przybyłowski, an expert from the Gdańsk Institute for Market Economics (IBnGR), the golden veto is a compromise between state control and private investors. Although opponents of the solution claim it hinders the company's development and makes its work inefficient, research published by the EC has not proven that shareholders with disproportionate control relative to their shares negatively influence listed companies, he said. But he noted that the disproportionate power may seem unjust.
