That was the Year
January
Some much-needed good news came Elektrim's way early in the New Year, when a Warsaw court threw out a bankruptcy motion filed by bondholders anxious to recover almost €480 million the company failed to pay when their bonds had matured in December.
Analysts also began the year cheerfully, predicting that the WSE would enjoy a gradual rebound, having lost a third of its value in 2001. In part their optimism was founded on an anticipated softening of the złoty, which they imagined could spark foreign interest in blue chips.
Meanwhile, Teflon Treasury Minister Wiesław Kaczmarek had survived a vote of no confidence. Opposition politicians accused him of jeopardising the country's energy supply by failing to demonstrate adequate enthusiasm for a long-term gas contract signed by the previous government with Norway.
Samoobrona leader Andrzej Lepper began the year in typically combative mood, protesting his ejection as deputy speaker of the Sejm after making derogtatory remarks about other MPs. Within days he had been stripped of his parliamentary immunity so that he could face charges stemming from bribery allegations and unflattering comments he had made about Foreign Minister Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz's father.
A police investigation in Łód confirmed media reports that some ambulance crews had received payment of up to €450 for the delivery of deceased persons to local funeral parlours. A number of doctors were also accused of facilitating some deaths.
February
PKN Orlen chief executive Andrzej Modrzejewski was detained on charges of insider trading. Treasury Minister Kaczmarek did not rush to save him.
Having built up a solid reputation for placing his political allies in senior management positions in state companies, Kaczmarek subsequently replaced the top man at PZU. In the process he succeeded in further souring relations with strategic investor Eureko, which was already upset by the treasury's reluctance to honour a promise that would allow it to increase its stake in PZU to more than 50%.
March
Netia appeared to haul itself back from the brink of bankruptcy, when it agreed to a debt-for-equity swap with its bondholders. The deal assured the creditors of receiving newly-issued shares amounting to 91% of total Netia capital after restructuring.
Tele-Fonika Kable, formerly known as Elektrim Kable, announced it would be closing down its factory in Ożarów Mazowiecki. The company's management informed the trade unions that the closure would result in up to 900 redundancies; the unions responded with a sit-in.
The Sejm gave its approval for the Polish air force to buy 48 multipurpose aircraft. According to initial estimates, the cost would be $3.5 billion, sufficient to provoke a battle royale among the three bidders: Lockheed Martin of the US, Dassault Aviation of France and the Swedish-British consortium of Grippen International.
Meanwhile the country's ground troops - engineers, logistics staff and GROM special forces - were flying into action in Afghanistan. A total force of 87 men was the Polish contribution to the international effort.
"I advise all officials to avoid making gestures that may be badly interpreted, even if they are a result of spontaneous behaviour," said President Aleksander Kwaniewski, commenting on a cheeky act by Tadeusz Iwinski. TV cameras had caught the Secretary of State at the Prime Minister's office in Barcelona, touching the buttocks of a female interpreter from the Polish delegation.
April
LOT Polish airlines surprised everyone when it opted to join Lufthansa, United Airlines and SAS in the Star Alliance of international air carriers. LOT had been tipped to join the British Airways-led Oneworld.
Lower labour costs werer the reason cited by U.S. cosmetics manufacturer Avon for transferring production to its plant in Garwolin. As a result, 465 people in Northampton in the UK would lose their jobs.
Treasury Minister Kaczmarek won the cabinet's support for his decision to back away from selling outright control of PZU to Eureko. An open-minded spirit eager to get into Europe, he commented that foreigners should not be permitted to take control of the nation's premier insurer.
In the on going war of words between the government and the National Bank of Poland, the prime minister urged the central bank to stop damaging the economy with high interest rates. Miller put some bite into his suggestion by hinting that he might not be forthcoming with his support for the NBP in the event of legislation being moved to curb its independence. It was the start of a phony war between bank and government.
May
The giant steel holding Polskie Huty Stali made its long talked-about debut, with the merger of four major steelworks. PHS took control of 85% of shares in the Katowice, Sendzimir, Cedler and Florian works, which produce 70% of the country's steel.
Finance Minister Marek Belka met governor of the National Bank of Poland Leszek Balcerowicz to discuss the złoty exchange rate. Belka was known to want a weaker złoty, and the fact that the meeting just took place was enough to bring the currency down to its lowest level since January.
"The Pianist" won Roman Polański his first-ever Golden Palm award at the Cannes film festival. The film is the story of one man's survival in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. The locally-made "Quo Vadis" bombed.
June
TPSA's stranglehold on the 10-million-client fixed-line telephone market came under threat, when Netia, Dialog and Elektrim Telekomunikacja decided to join forces. The three operators had obtained licences to provide services in areas where roughly half of Poland's 40 million consumers live.
Britain's MG Rover emerged as the saviour of the debt-devastated Korean car-maker Daewoo-FSO. The company confirmed that it would become an investor in an entity called the New Small Company, created on the basis of part of Daewoo-FSO's assets.
Employees of the Życie daily protested against the management's delay in paying their monthly salaries. The journalists were reported to be thinking of employing the services of a debt-collection agency. "Watch this space" was to be the appropriate phrase as the story unfolded.
The Industrial Development Agency paid a symbolic one złoty in a bid to continue ship-building at the crisis-hit Sczcecin Shipyard. Superman said the failure proved capitalism wasn't up to much, either.
Year-on-year inflation fell to 1.9%, the lowest level in recent Polish history. Analysts, however, refused to be cheered by the news, claiming that the rapid fall stemmed from weak domestic demand caused by the economic slowdown. The Monetary Policy Council responded with a 0.5% shave off interest rates.
Prime Minister Miller, on an official visit to Norway, commented that Poland was interested in receiving gas from sources other than Russia. However, doubts were already being raised over the construction of a gas pipeline from Norway to Poland, with Statoil saying it was having difficulty finding customers for enough gas to make the pipeline viable.
EU leaders agreed during their Seville summit on a timetable for candidate countries' accession. "We drafted a crystal clear schedule for the candidates," said Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar. "By early November the EU will take decisions on the financial terms for the enlargement, and negotiations will be concluded in December."
Three men found guilty in the infamous Warsaw Kredyt Bank robbery of March 2001 were all sentenced to life imprisonment. In the course of the robbery the men executed three cashiers and a security guard in cold blood.
The man accused of the murder of former sports minister Jacek Dębski was found hanged in his Warsaw prison cell. The death came on the day after prosecutors confronted Tadeusz M. with the only witness to the murder.
Defeats to South Korea and Portugal ended hopes of a successful run in the World Cup. Despite victory over the United States, Poland got the boot in the first round, and coach Jerzy Engel subsequently resigned. His successor, Zbigniew Boniek, lasted just six months in the job.
July
Financial markets were stunned by the sudden resignation of Finance Minister Marek Belka. Although Belka claimed he was resigning for personal reasons - he claimed to be "burned out" after eight months in the job - sources close to the government said there had been major differences over the budget and that Belka had been involved in a major rumpus with Miller immediately prior to his resignation.
News that his old rival Grzegorz Kołodko had been resurrected as the new finance minister led to an immediate weakening of the złoty on the foreign exchange markets. Kołodko's failure to make any policy statement for several weeks after his appointment served to increase the jitters among foreign investors.
August
Elektrim's bondholders voted to accept the company plan for restructuring bond repayments. To make ends meet, Elektrim accepted, that it would have to sell off its key assets in the telecommunications sector.
"I hate to go," were the final words of Pope John Paul II as he left Poland after a brief visit to his homeland. "You will return," shouted an adoring crowd of 30,000 at the airport.
The country was plunged into mourning by the death of philanthropist Marek Kotański in a car crash. More than 10,000 people accompanied his coffin to its final resting place. The Sejm honoured the deceased with a one-minute silence.
September
A report revealed that more than 10,000 construction companies went bankrupt between July 2001 and June 2002. The vast majority were small enterprises unable to cope with the recession in the building sector.
Economy Minister Jacek Piechota told the Sejm that it would be impossible to save the mining sector without some appropriate restructuring of the pits; in other words, major job losses. "You must remember that it is the mining sector that must adjust to the needs of the economy and not the other way round," the minister said.
The government announced that it intended to go back on a promise to reduce corporate income tax by 4%. Instead, the reduction would be 1%, bringing the level down to 27%. Business organisations were furious at the reversal, arguing that it would impede a demand-driven economic recovery.
October
The Finance Ministry introduced a 30% cut in taxes on spirits. The move was aimed at finally doing something about rampant smuggling.
There was uproar in the Sejm as Treasury Minister Kaczmarek attempted to announce the sale of power utility Stoen to RWE Plus of Germany. Deputies were incensed because they believed the German company was getting Stoen on the cheap. Gabriel Janowski of the Polish Families League mounted a 19-hour sit-in, and had to be carried feet first out of the chamber by uniformed guards.
Chaos also surrounded local elections, as a result of the failure of the computer system designed to count the votes. When the dust finally settled, Lech Kaczyński of PiS was declared as the man to rule Warsaw as its first directly elected mayor. He triumphed in the second round over the SLD, which were humilated around the country.
November
The SLD could have been forgiven for wishing that the results had never come out, when it was discovered how badly the party had fared. The failure came as a particularly unpleasant surprise in areas which were regarded as leftist bastions, like Łód.
There were calls for the finance minister to resign after the Constitutional Tribunal rejected his tax amnesty bill and compulsory disclosures of wealth. The planned tax amnesty was a cornerstone of Kołodko's economic recovery package, intended to curb Poland's shadow economy.
Foreign ministers of the 15 European Union countries decided that the 10 candidate members would join on May 1, 2004. The ministers insisted that the ratification of the accession treaty would take about one year; the document is expected to be signed in Athens in April 2003.
Radio Maryja brushed off a television documentary about its director, the priest Tadeusz Rydzyk, head of a vast media empire that includes the Catholic radio station. The documentary suggested that, despite a _4 million profit last year, Father Rydzyk had been less than generous with his tax contributions.
December
PKN Orlen reached an agreement on buying 494 BP petrol stations in Germany. "This acquisition is an important first stage in building a strong and lasting presence in western Europe's largest energy market," Orlen said in a statement.
The government was being accused of brinkmanship ahead of the Copenhagen summit due to accept new EU members. Frustrated by 20 last-minute demands presented by Foreign Minister Cimoszewicz, his Danish counterpart Per Stig Moeller commented, "We want Poland to be part of the community, but if Poland does not want to be part of the Union, I simply have to accept that."
Życie failed to report the EU summit, having gone bust.
Some much-needed good news came Elektrim's way early in the New Year, when a Warsaw court threw out a bankruptcy motion filed by bondholders anxious to recover almost €480 million the company failed to pay when their bonds had matured in December.
Analysts also began the year cheerfully, predicting that the WSE would enjoy a gradual rebound, having lost a third of its value in 2001. In part their optimism was founded on an anticipated softening of the złoty, which they imagined could spark foreign interest in blue chips.
Meanwhile, Teflon Treasury Minister Wiesław Kaczmarek had survived a vote of no confidence. Opposition politicians accused him of jeopardising the country's energy supply by failing to demonstrate adequate enthusiasm for a long-term gas contract signed by the previous government with Norway.
Samoobrona leader Andrzej Lepper began the year in typically combative mood, protesting his ejection as deputy speaker of the Sejm after making derogtatory remarks about other MPs. Within days he had been stripped of his parliamentary immunity so that he could face charges stemming from bribery allegations and unflattering comments he had made about Foreign Minister Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz's father.
A police investigation in Łód confirmed media reports that some ambulance crews had received payment of up to €450 for the delivery of deceased persons to local funeral parlours. A number of doctors were also accused of facilitating some deaths.
February
PKN Orlen chief executive Andrzej Modrzejewski was detained on charges of insider trading. Treasury Minister Kaczmarek did not rush to save him.
Having built up a solid reputation for placing his political allies in senior management positions in state companies, Kaczmarek subsequently replaced the top man at PZU. In the process he succeeded in further souring relations with strategic investor Eureko, which was already upset by the treasury's reluctance to honour a promise that would allow it to increase its stake in PZU to more than 50%.
March
Netia appeared to haul itself back from the brink of bankruptcy, when it agreed to a debt-for-equity swap with its bondholders. The deal assured the creditors of receiving newly-issued shares amounting to 91% of total Netia capital after restructuring.
Tele-Fonika Kable, formerly known as Elektrim Kable, announced it would be closing down its factory in Ożarów Mazowiecki. The company's management informed the trade unions that the closure would result in up to 900 redundancies; the unions responded with a sit-in.
The Sejm gave its approval for the Polish air force to buy 48 multipurpose aircraft. According to initial estimates, the cost would be $3.5 billion, sufficient to provoke a battle royale among the three bidders: Lockheed Martin of the US, Dassault Aviation of France and the Swedish-British consortium of Grippen International.
Meanwhile the country's ground troops - engineers, logistics staff and GROM special forces - were flying into action in Afghanistan. A total force of 87 men was the Polish contribution to the international effort.
"I advise all officials to avoid making gestures that may be badly interpreted, even if they are a result of spontaneous behaviour," said President Aleksander Kwaniewski, commenting on a cheeky act by Tadeusz Iwinski. TV cameras had caught the Secretary of State at the Prime Minister's office in Barcelona, touching the buttocks of a female interpreter from the Polish delegation.
April
LOT Polish airlines surprised everyone when it opted to join Lufthansa, United Airlines and SAS in the Star Alliance of international air carriers. LOT had been tipped to join the British Airways-led Oneworld.
Lower labour costs werer the reason cited by U.S. cosmetics manufacturer Avon for transferring production to its plant in Garwolin. As a result, 465 people in Northampton in the UK would lose their jobs.
Treasury Minister Kaczmarek won the cabinet's support for his decision to back away from selling outright control of PZU to Eureko. An open-minded spirit eager to get into Europe, he commented that foreigners should not be permitted to take control of the nation's premier insurer.
In the on going war of words between the government and the National Bank of Poland, the prime minister urged the central bank to stop damaging the economy with high interest rates. Miller put some bite into his suggestion by hinting that he might not be forthcoming with his support for the NBP in the event of legislation being moved to curb its independence. It was the start of a phony war between bank and government.
May
The giant steel holding Polskie Huty Stali made its long talked-about debut, with the merger of four major steelworks. PHS took control of 85% of shares in the Katowice, Sendzimir, Cedler and Florian works, which produce 70% of the country's steel.
Finance Minister Marek Belka met governor of the National Bank of Poland Leszek Balcerowicz to discuss the złoty exchange rate. Belka was known to want a weaker złoty, and the fact that the meeting just took place was enough to bring the currency down to its lowest level since January.
"The Pianist" won Roman Polański his first-ever Golden Palm award at the Cannes film festival. The film is the story of one man's survival in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. The locally-made "Quo Vadis" bombed.
June
TPSA's stranglehold on the 10-million-client fixed-line telephone market came under threat, when Netia, Dialog and Elektrim Telekomunikacja decided to join forces. The three operators had obtained licences to provide services in areas where roughly half of Poland's 40 million consumers live.
Britain's MG Rover emerged as the saviour of the debt-devastated Korean car-maker Daewoo-FSO. The company confirmed that it would become an investor in an entity called the New Small Company, created on the basis of part of Daewoo-FSO's assets.
Employees of the Życie daily protested against the management's delay in paying their monthly salaries. The journalists were reported to be thinking of employing the services of a debt-collection agency. "Watch this space" was to be the appropriate phrase as the story unfolded.
The Industrial Development Agency paid a symbolic one złoty in a bid to continue ship-building at the crisis-hit Sczcecin Shipyard. Superman said the failure proved capitalism wasn't up to much, either.
Year-on-year inflation fell to 1.9%, the lowest level in recent Polish history. Analysts, however, refused to be cheered by the news, claiming that the rapid fall stemmed from weak domestic demand caused by the economic slowdown. The Monetary Policy Council responded with a 0.5% shave off interest rates.
Prime Minister Miller, on an official visit to Norway, commented that Poland was interested in receiving gas from sources other than Russia. However, doubts were already being raised over the construction of a gas pipeline from Norway to Poland, with Statoil saying it was having difficulty finding customers for enough gas to make the pipeline viable.
EU leaders agreed during their Seville summit on a timetable for candidate countries' accession. "We drafted a crystal clear schedule for the candidates," said Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar. "By early November the EU will take decisions on the financial terms for the enlargement, and negotiations will be concluded in December."
Three men found guilty in the infamous Warsaw Kredyt Bank robbery of March 2001 were all sentenced to life imprisonment. In the course of the robbery the men executed three cashiers and a security guard in cold blood.
The man accused of the murder of former sports minister Jacek Dębski was found hanged in his Warsaw prison cell. The death came on the day after prosecutors confronted Tadeusz M. with the only witness to the murder.
Defeats to South Korea and Portugal ended hopes of a successful run in the World Cup. Despite victory over the United States, Poland got the boot in the first round, and coach Jerzy Engel subsequently resigned. His successor, Zbigniew Boniek, lasted just six months in the job.
July
Financial markets were stunned by the sudden resignation of Finance Minister Marek Belka. Although Belka claimed he was resigning for personal reasons - he claimed to be "burned out" after eight months in the job - sources close to the government said there had been major differences over the budget and that Belka had been involved in a major rumpus with Miller immediately prior to his resignation.
News that his old rival Grzegorz Kołodko had been resurrected as the new finance minister led to an immediate weakening of the złoty on the foreign exchange markets. Kołodko's failure to make any policy statement for several weeks after his appointment served to increase the jitters among foreign investors.
August
Elektrim's bondholders voted to accept the company plan for restructuring bond repayments. To make ends meet, Elektrim accepted, that it would have to sell off its key assets in the telecommunications sector.
"I hate to go," were the final words of Pope John Paul II as he left Poland after a brief visit to his homeland. "You will return," shouted an adoring crowd of 30,000 at the airport.
The country was plunged into mourning by the death of philanthropist Marek Kotański in a car crash. More than 10,000 people accompanied his coffin to its final resting place. The Sejm honoured the deceased with a one-minute silence.
September
A report revealed that more than 10,000 construction companies went bankrupt between July 2001 and June 2002. The vast majority were small enterprises unable to cope with the recession in the building sector.
Economy Minister Jacek Piechota told the Sejm that it would be impossible to save the mining sector without some appropriate restructuring of the pits; in other words, major job losses. "You must remember that it is the mining sector that must adjust to the needs of the economy and not the other way round," the minister said.
The government announced that it intended to go back on a promise to reduce corporate income tax by 4%. Instead, the reduction would be 1%, bringing the level down to 27%. Business organisations were furious at the reversal, arguing that it would impede a demand-driven economic recovery.
October
The Finance Ministry introduced a 30% cut in taxes on spirits. The move was aimed at finally doing something about rampant smuggling.
There was uproar in the Sejm as Treasury Minister Kaczmarek attempted to announce the sale of power utility Stoen to RWE Plus of Germany. Deputies were incensed because they believed the German company was getting Stoen on the cheap. Gabriel Janowski of the Polish Families League mounted a 19-hour sit-in, and had to be carried feet first out of the chamber by uniformed guards.
Chaos also surrounded local elections, as a result of the failure of the computer system designed to count the votes. When the dust finally settled, Lech Kaczyński of PiS was declared as the man to rule Warsaw as its first directly elected mayor. He triumphed in the second round over the SLD, which were humilated around the country.
November
The SLD could have been forgiven for wishing that the results had never come out, when it was discovered how badly the party had fared. The failure came as a particularly unpleasant surprise in areas which were regarded as leftist bastions, like Łód.
There were calls for the finance minister to resign after the Constitutional Tribunal rejected his tax amnesty bill and compulsory disclosures of wealth. The planned tax amnesty was a cornerstone of Kołodko's economic recovery package, intended to curb Poland's shadow economy.
Foreign ministers of the 15 European Union countries decided that the 10 candidate members would join on May 1, 2004. The ministers insisted that the ratification of the accession treaty would take about one year; the document is expected to be signed in Athens in April 2003.
Radio Maryja brushed off a television documentary about its director, the priest Tadeusz Rydzyk, head of a vast media empire that includes the Catholic radio station. The documentary suggested that, despite a _4 million profit last year, Father Rydzyk had been less than generous with his tax contributions.
December
PKN Orlen reached an agreement on buying 494 BP petrol stations in Germany. "This acquisition is an important first stage in building a strong and lasting presence in western Europe's largest energy market," Orlen said in a statement.
The government was being accused of brinkmanship ahead of the Copenhagen summit due to accept new EU members. Frustrated by 20 last-minute demands presented by Foreign Minister Cimoszewicz, his Danish counterpart Per Stig Moeller commented, "We want Poland to be part of the community, but if Poland does not want to be part of the Union, I simply have to accept that."
Życie failed to report the EU summit, having gone bust.
