The European Commission cares about competition in the market. It did not select Saudi Aramco or negotiate a deal with Saudi Aramco on behalf of Orlen

Prof. Michał Romanowski, in an interview with a TVN24 journalist for Konkret24.tvn24.pl, comments on reports that the European Commission was to assess the deal to sell Saudi Aramco 30% of Lotos shares in terms of its safety for Poland:

"Lawyer and commercial law expert Prof. Michał Romanowski explains that the Commission, when analysing the merger of Orlen and Lotos, probably pointed out that with the merger of the two companies the market would be dominated by one entity. It therefore indicated the sale of some of the assets as a condition for granting approval for the merger. - In such a situation, it is important that the entity acquiring the assets actually takes control of them. So that there is no situation where the entity selling the assets actually retains control over them,' says Prof Romanowski.
In the case of the agreement concluded by Orlen with Saudi Aramco, the essence was to give control over the Gdansk Refinery.".

"Asked about politicians who insist that the sale of shares in the Gdansk refinery company took place under the control of the European Commission, Professor Michał Romanowski replies: - 'Such statements suggest that the deal passed some test before the European Commission, only that this is not true.'"

"If Orlen had presented the situation fully objectively, it could have said that it was in the interest of the Polish state to give up control of some of the assets that were under state control in order to ensure state security. We are selling the refinery to make it safe. However, they are saying something different: we are merging to make it safer and still maintain control," notes Prof Romanowski. In his opinion, however, the European Commission would not agree to such a solution.".

Article available: here.