OLD BATTLE LINES DRAWN OVER POLAND'S PZU

Even though Netherlands-based Eureko has pulled away from its interest in Polish state-controlled insurer PZU, internal disagreements within the Polish government over the future of the insurer re-emerged at the end of last week. Local paper Rzeczpospolita claimed that the Donald Tusk-led administration was looking to sell off more shares next year in bank PKO and insurer PZU. This was almost immediately contradicted by Treasury Minister Maciej Wewiór, who told Reuters that the privatization plan was only for PLZ7bn ($2.3bn) rather than the PLZ25bn claimed. However, at a later press conference prime minister Donald Tusk said that PKO and PZU were among strategic companies in which the government might reduce its stake to about 25%. For more than a decade the Polish Treasury successfully stonewalled various Polish administrations' attempts to hand over control of PZU to the private sector, leading Eureko eventually to admit defeat and effectively to sell back its stake to the Polish state.