Poland rejects EU demand for Gdansk shipyard cuts

Poland rejects EU demand for Gdansk shipyard cuts

Co European Commission ma do Polski racji stanu?
stanmy Polacy w obronie stoczni Solidarnosci.
za duzo jest za duzo
Ci urzednicy z European Commissionnie maja co do zrobienia to wyslac ic na wakacje do pracy na roli w Zamojskim albo w bylych PGR.
Lech Bajan Washington DC.



Poland rejects EU demand for Gdansk shipyard cuts
20 August 2007, 21:32 CET
(WARSAW) - Poland on Monday rejected demands by the European Commission to reduce the capacity of the Gdansk shipyard, the birthplace of the Solidarity trade union.

On July 20, the Commission gave Poland until August 21 to come up with a restructuring plan for the Gdansk shipyard, or face the possibility that the struggling yard will have to pay back state aid allocated to it.

But on the eve of the deadline, Warsaw sent a 200-page document to the Commission, saying it wanted to keep two slipways in operation in Gdansk, instead of just one as Brussels had demanded.

"If we meet the demands of the European Commission to keep just one of the three slipways all we will have in 2010 is a tiny company instead of a shipyard," deputy economy minister Pawel Poncyliusz was quoted by the PAP news agency as saying.

The Gdansk yard holds particular historic importance for Poles.

A strike by 17,000 workers in August 1980 at what was then the Lenin Shipyard forced authorities to the negotiating table and led to the creation of Solidarity, the communist bloc's first free trade union.

Solidarity helped hasten the final demise of Poland's regime in 1989 and of the former communist bloc overall.

The struggling Baltic coast shipyards of Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin have received a total of at least 1.3 billion euros (1.75 billion dollars) in state aid since 2002.

EU state aid rules on shipbuilding require the aid to be based on far-reaching restructuring plans, which must be financed not only by the state subsidies but also by private capital.

In addition, the Commission said, the "distortive effect of the aid must be offset with capacity reductions".