Poland Averts Clash With Europe Over Italian Bank Deal

The Polish government has agreed to allow the Italian bank UniCredito to go forward with a deal to acquire two of Poland’s own banks. In return, UniCredito will sell nearly half of its new Polish bank branches, preserve and put out for bid a leading Polish bank brand name, and guarantee jobs for at least two years to its new Polish employees. Without these conditions, the deal would have created Poland’s largest bank. The concessions eased not only Polish anxiety about surrendering highly visible symbols of its young capitalist economy to foreign mega corporations, but fears about a resurgence of Polish protectionism. The agreement does not, however, necessarily end Warsaw’s legal dispute with the European Union, which charged that Poland had no legal authority to alter the merger at all. Poland and UniCredito may celebrate a return to business as usual, but it is clear that one of the EU’s newest members joins countries like France and Spain in resisting rules governing business in an integrated Europe. – YaleGlobal