How well off are bank managers in times of crisis and the political cream of the crop eyes EP elections.   

Press reviewed by Slawek Szefs

Banks have taken a more sober approach, headlines GAZETA WYBORCZA. It notes with satisfaction that most banks pressing their clients, who found themselves in quite a predicament after a considerable drop in real estate value and growing rate of the Swiss frank which made installments on their mortgage loans astronomical, have retracted from such policy. Many were threatened by banks with credit withdrawal unless they agreed to the hiked sums or provided additional guarantees, which meant potentially facing property takeover. It seems the steam has worn off when the the Financial Supervisory Committee (KNF) and the Office for Protection of Competition and Consumers (UOKiK) have issued a warning that banks cannot take advantage of the crisis situation to increase their interest at the expense of customers.  

And speaking of banks, RZECZPOSPOLITA adds substance to gossip about the exorbitant pay checks of top executives of the leading financial institutions in Poland. While the average salary in Polish companies went up by 10 percent in 2008 compared to the previous year, remuneration of bank managers went up by 40 percent in same period. Bank employees saw a 16 percent rise on the average and it must be kept in mind that the basis for these calculations had been much more modest than that of their bosses. The two leaders in the statistics received 5.7 and 4.5 million zloties for their services last year, that's roughly 1.2 and 1 million euro, respectively.

DZIENNIK looks ahead to the European parliamentary election campaign in Poland. Out of the 736 MEP mandates Poles shall choose their representatives to 50 seats in the June ballot. There is still much discussion on who is to run on the individual parties' lists, but all have taken much care and effort to offer society the cream of the crop. And so, the ruling Civic Platform (PO) is delegating EU Commissioner Danuta Huebner to seek re-election and prove the party's European aspirations, simultaneously pulling away some votes from the left side of the political spectrum. The major opposition Law and Justice (PiS) is counting on the authority of minister Michal Kaminski from the President's Office. Complete lists of designated candidates from all parties are to be submitted to the State Electoral Commission by April 18th. So far, only the Polish Peasant Party - the junior government coalition member - has announced the names of all its nominees.

And the Warsaw daily ZYCIE WARSZAWY follows the just opened discussion of urban planing experts and City Council members on the future shape of the capital's downtown area immediately surrounding the Palace of Culture and Science. The centrally situated structure, built in the 19'Fifties as a gift from erstwhile Soviet Russia and named in honor of Joseph Stalin, has been a returning motif of politically tinted social contoversy of the past two decades in democratic Poland. Now, planners are again deliberating how to surround the communist period souvenir with modern steel and glass highrises to change the climate of Warsaw's city center. But such urban development policy is characteristic of Asian metropolies and not in accordance with European trends of finding harmony between the old and new, argue the critics.