European Business Organization Law Review 11: 95-124 95
© 2010 T.M.C.ASSER PRESS doi:10.1017/S1566752910100068
The Compatibility of the Polish State’s Golden Shares
with EC Law
àukasz Adamczyk and Tymoteusz BaraĔski
1. The Polish golden share regime ................................................................. 96
1.1 The Act on Special Powers of the Treasury and Their Exercise in
Companies of Special Importance for Public Order or Public Security..... 96
1.1.1 The subjective scope of the Act ................................................................. 96
1.1.2 The objective scope of the Act................................................................... 99
1.2 The Executive Regulation and the state’s policy objectives in those
areas of societal and economic life that are of special importance
for public order or public security ........................................................... 107
2. Golden shares and EC law ....................................................................... 110
2.1 General remarks ....................................................................................... 110
2.2 A limitation on the maximum number of shares an investor can
possess ..................................................................................................... 111
2.3 The requirement to have a permit for a significant level of shares
to be surpassed ......................................................................................... 112
2.4 The right of state bodies to nominate members of a company’s
statutory bodies ........................................................................................ 112
2.5 The exclusive right of the State Treasury to object to management
board decisions ........................................................................................ 113
2.6 The freedom of capital movements and the golden share ........................ 113
2.6.1 The concept of free movement of capital and its restrictions................... 113
2.6.2 The golden share as a restriction on the freedom of capital
movements ............................................................................................... 114
2.6.3 Justification of golden shares ................................................................... 117
2.6.4 The proportionality of the golden share ................................................... 119
3. The compatibility of Polish golden share regulations with European
Community law ....................................................................................... 120
3.1 General remarks ....................................................................................... 120
3.2 The Polish golden share as a restriction on the freedom of capital
movements and the potential justifications thereof .................................. 120
3.3 The proportionality of the Polish golden share ........................................ 122
4. Conclusions.............................................................................................. 123
àukasz Adamczyk is a PhD student at the Financial Law Department of Warsaw University’s
Faculty of Law and Administration. Tymoteusz BaraĔski is a lawyer specialising in property and
business law, trainee advocate and associate at the I&Z law firm in Warsaw. The authors wish to
thank Mr Boleslaw Matuszewski for his help in developing the English version of this paper.