Poland
The Polish government against the National Bank of Poland
The Polish government appears to be attempting to supplant its judgment in place of the judgment of the board of the National Bank of Poland.
The Polish government has mounted an attack on the board of the National Bank of Poland on a few fronts.
The National Bank of Poland is currently considering a merger of banks. The Polish government does not want that merger to go forward.
The Polish government also wants to examine the activities of the central bank and the Polish banking sector over the past 17 years. They want to form a special Parliamentary investigation committee that will bring before it as witnesses such people as the current president of the National Bank of Poland, Lezek Balcerowicz, and the former head of the National Bank of Poland Hanna Gronkiewicz-Walcz.
These assaults on the independence of the National Bank of Poland have gotten the attention of the European Union not only as far as their concerns for the independence of the bank but also as to the general approach of the Polish government. There is concern that the populist approach of the current Polish government is not in line with what would be expected of a government of a country that is a member of the European Union.
The meeting of the bank board last night, March 15, 2006, saw the extraordinary attendance of two Polish government public prosecutors and the Minister of Finance. After five hours the meeting was adjourned and decisions postponed for a period of three weeks.
The Polish security services have gotten involved in the bank dispute. They sent a letter to the president of the National Bank of Poland which letter indicated that the Italian bank involved in the merger process had instructed that certain investments should not be made. This said that the stock market regulators are also looking into this matter.
It seems as if the Polish government is throwing the resources of every regulatory and investigative agency that has into the fray in order to prevent a merger of Polish banks with an Italian bank.
Debate on this continues in the Parliament today.
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