[R-G] Gdansk Shipyard, after Communism

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL29753329>
EU urges Poland to file reform plans for shipyards
Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:48am EST

BRUSSELS, Feb 29 (Reuters) - The European Commission has urged Poland
to meet Friday's deadline for the submission of restructuring plans at
struggling state-controlled shipyards suspected of receiving illegal
state aid.

Poland must also not agree rescue plans with prospective investors in
the yards -- Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin, where anti-Communist
movement Solidarity was born in 1980 -- over the Commission's head,
the European Union executive said.

"We want to emphasise it would be extremely disappointing for the
Commission if we were presented with a fait accompli," Commission
spokesman Jonathan Todd told a daily news briefing.

"We do not expect the restructuring plans to be finalised ... without
our involvement."

Officials say the Commission is impatient with Poland for dragging its
feet over the plans, which could provide the basis for Brussels
regulators to declare whether state aid for the yards is legal.

Because of the state aid, the Commission is demanding unspecified
output cuts from the shipyards.

"We consider there has been ample time for the preparation of these
restructuring plans. We have been very co-operative and
understanding," Todd said.

He declined to say how much the Commission believed Poland had granted
to the shipyards in aid, but some estimates put it at hundreds of
millions of euros.

Unless the Commission accepts the restructuring plans, it may order
the yards to repay state aid deemed illegal even after their
privatisation.

Under EU rules, governments can give financial help to ailing
companies only if the cash is accompanied by plans that would make the
firms viable in the long term.

Industrial Donbass Union, one of Ukraine's biggest financial and
industrial groups, has agreed to pay $400 million for the Gdansk
shipyard.

Polish newspapers have reported future investors are not willing to
see the yard's production capacity slashed or to repay state aid.

(Editing by David Hulmes)

-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>