The hunt for Balcerowicz

To do so, he says, would compromise the neutrality of the central bank and place it under political pressure. However, Balcerowicz's remaining time in office is short, and when he leaves, and the new Commission for Financial Supervision (KNF) takes over the supervision of the sector in January, any notion of central-bank independence will be well and truly banished.

Perhaps Balcerowicz hopes that this last act of defiance will force the markets and perhaps wider political forces into action, and pull control of the banking sector back from the political realm.

To this end, 20 of the world's most distinguished economists, led by Richard Portes from the London Business School, put their names to a letter published in the September 11 edition of the Financial Times, expressing their alarm at recent events in Poland. In it, they say central-bank independence is "a key pillar of monetary arrangements in Europe and indeed elsewhere." Furthermore, allegations of impropriety by Balcerowicz should be "tested in the courts, not asserted by Ministers and tried before a parliamentary committee." They end the letter by appealing to the EU, the European Parliament and the European Central Bank to pressure the Polish government to reconsider its policies.

The EU appears to be listening, even if Law and Justice isn't. The Commissioner for the Internal Market, Charlie McCreevy, was in Warsaw last week and, never one to mince his words, he said the EU would not hesitate to act if it saw political interference in organizing KNF. Still smarting from Poland's intransigence over the Unicredito-HVB merger, he took the opportunity to remind Poland that it still faces sanctions over its plodding response to the deal.

The ongoing investigation into the banking industry is also a cause for concern. The commission's chairman, PiS' Artur Zawisza, has alarmed several deputies with his conduct and appears to be using the hearings as a platform to promote himself and his party ahead of November's local elections. If this is the manner in which PiS will also run the KNF, life in the banking sector without Leszek Balcerowicz and his central bank will be very tough indeed.