Economic Reform, Privatization, Foreign Direct Investment and the “Golden Share”: The Polish Perspective and EU Regulations

In the context of state intervention in an economy, be it capitalist, transition, or mixed, the exercise of a Golden Share may be reserved for companies whose business is deemed to be of ongoing importance relating to national security, sovereignty, or other considerations. This paper first describes the Golden Share and will then focus on the Golden Share in the context of the changes that occurred in the Polish economy post-1989, which may be seen as reactive to economic and political reform, the process of privatization, the role of foreign direct investment in Poland’s internal market, and perhaps most importantly, in negative perceptions about the effects of these processes in Poland. The paper will also discuss the limiting approach of the European Union to the use of Golden Shares, policy alternatives to the Golden Share, as well as pointing to the use of a variant of the Golden Share—investment screening—as a tool of both the Biden and Trump administrations, as a point of comparison. The paper provides an extensive bibliography of articles, data, and commentary on these issues for further study and research.