Week in Review

Defence firms Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, producers of the F-16 aircraft, signed offset deals worth more than €200 million with PZL Mielec as part of their bid to supply a multipurpose jet fighter for the Polish military.

TPSA will no longer cheat customers by charging them for each three-minute impulse as of the first quarter of 2003, when it'll start charging callers by the second. TPSA president Marek Józefiak, unsurprisingly declared it wouldn't be able to get the IT right before then. Technology glitches in a phone company. Where else?

Elektrim has lost more than €10 million (zł. 40 million) through its investment in Poland Telecom Operators (PTO), a local operator that was to strengthen the Warsaw-based holding. Elektrim has managed to recover only €2.4 million of the €12 million it originally lent to PTO, failing to retrieve its money while it teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.

The pain never eases at Elektrim. Former CEOs Barbara Lundberg and Waldemar Œiwak have filed lawsuits against the company demanding €2 million (zł. 8 million) in damages for unpaid severance packages and interest. Elektrim has already received financial demands from its two other dismissed heads, Andrzej Skowronski and Emilian Bryk.

Fuel company PKN Orlen intends to start oil exploration operations, an activity with high profit margins, by working with Polish partners to obtain access oil reserves in countries to the east.

PKN Orlen and Rotch Energy have officially signed an agreement on the creation of a consortium which is to purchase a 75% stake in Gdańsk Refinery. They need a decision to sell from Nafta Polska.

More moves to consolidate the bank sector. Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano and Austria's Raiffeisen were shortlisted as investors to take over regional bank Górnoœlšski Bank Gospodarczy which has a stronghold in Upper Silesia. GBG's biggest shareholder, BPH PBK, said a decision would be made by the end of the year. The Spanish bank also wants Bank of America Polska.

Slovenian pharmaceuticals producer Lek will build a new factory in Stryków near ŁódŸ for an estimated €75.4 million (zł. 300 million). Production is planned to be launched in 2005, and the plant will create 250 jobs.

The alarming news spread that Poczta Polska plans to start offering property and life insurance, although it still has to wait for a new law to be passed by the Sejm.

The treasury's total outstanding arrears in personal income tax reached €3.8 billion (zł. 15.04 billion) at the end of September - 0.7%, or €24 million (zł. 96 million), more than in August. After the first nine months of 2002, tax arrears had mounted by 18.9% to a total €3.9 billion (zł. 15.45 billion). According to the Finance Ministry, the slight recovery may be a result of the promised tax "amnesty". Only irrepressible cynics would disagree.

Indicators of a slow economic recovery were thought to be identified when the National Bank of Poland announced positive results in foreign trade. The NBP said that companies exported goods worth €2.87 billion abroad, an increase of almost 26% compared to the same period in 2001, while imports reached €3.7 billion, 19% higher than last year.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder met Prime Minister Leszek Miller and President Aleksander Kwaœniewski to discuss Poland's accession to the European Union and related financial issues. This is one of the first foreign visits by Schroeder since re-election. Tadeusz Iwiński, the Secretary of State at the Foreign Ministry, gave him a lecture on how to organise a united Europe, which made the trip worthwhile.

The European Union is not going to re-open negotiations with Poland on environment protection. In a report published in the middle of October, the European Commission gave the thumbs down to progress on environmental protection issues. Polish negotiators presented a detailed plan on the construction of at least one dumping ground in each gmina to satisfy EU requirements. They also presented a detailed plan promising that by 2004 water will be fit to drink. Meanwhile, new figures show empty promises are now the country's largest export commodity to the EU.

For the first time, the European Parliament invited 50 Polish MPs and Senators to participate in a European Parliament debate. The Polish Family League delivered a snub while Andrzej Lepper, the leader of Samoobrona, hinted he might make a scene if he wasn't allowed to speak.