Minister of Development and Technology Waldemar Buda has acted on advice of the Internal Security Agency (ABW) to take over the shares owned by Gazprom in the EuRoPol Gaz company. EuRoPol is the owner of the Polish part of the Yamal-Europe gas pipe network.
Up until now, Gazprom owned 48 percent of the shares, with 48 percent owned by PGNiG and 4 percent by PKN Orlen.
The government decided to take the assets belonging to Gazprom into receivership on the grounds of national security. This is a logical consequence of the fact that Gazprom is on the list of sanctioned companies; also, the Polish Ministry of the Interior had recommended freezing Gazprom’s assets in EuRoPol Gaz.
The decision means that EuRoPol Gaz will not have to suffer a stalemate on its board. According to the company’s rules, decisions within the company require the agreement of three-fourths of the shareholders, which meant Gazprom could have blocked decisions affecting Poland’s national security. Polish authorities say this problem has now been resolved.
Just a few days ago, the European Commission agreed to the German government taking over the largest company from the Gazprom Group, SEFE GmbH. According to the commission, the decision was taken with the objective of securing gas supplies for the German economy.
