Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – The Polish Ministry of the Treasure lost another battle with Eureko. The court did not agree with its opinion that Stephen Schwebel was not impartial.
Stephen Schwebel, the well-know American lawyer was the arbiter indicated by Eureko, the minority shareholder in PZU insurance company in the arbitrary proceeding held in Brussels. In August 2005, the tribunal decided that Poland broke the agreement with Holland when the state failed to sell 21 percent of PZU to Eureko as promised in the privatization agreement. Mr. Schwebel and Ives Portier from Canada agreed with this decision. Jerzy Rajski, the Polish arbiter had a different view.
In November, the Ministry filed a suit to cancel the decision (Poland lost it) and to exclude Mr. Schwebel because he was not impartial. According to the Polish ministry, the latter advised Sidley Austin lawyer’s office which represented Cargill U.S. company in a case against the Polish government. Eureko now wants the second phase of the proceeding, i.e. the decision concerning the compensation.
“The application will be submitted as soon as possible, maybe even this year”, Michal Nastula, Eureko Polska CEO said.
Eureko believes that the losses grow PLN 1 billion (EUR 261m) annually. At the end of 2005, they estimated them at EUR 1.5-2 billion.
The Ministry of the Treasure is going to appeal.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.261)