Polish workers picket EU over ailing shipyards

Polish workers took to the streets of Brussels today to protest at commission plans to restructure Poland’s shipyards.

The demonstrators, numbering close to 100, waved flags emblazoned with the logo of Poland’s historic labour union, Solidarity, outside the commission’s Berlaymont headquarters Wednesday lunchtime, at one point blocking the entrance to the building for journalists and commissionofficials.

The EU has been investigating state aid to the three main shipyards at Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin since 2005, and is still waiting for the Polish government to submit “viable” restructuring plans.

There are fears that Poland’s three main shipyards will be forced to close if the commission rules against subsidies doled out to them by the government.

The EU’s competition chief, Neelie Kroes, said Wednesday that unless the Polish government presents plans by Thursday that comply with strict regulations on state aid payments, she would have “no option” but to adopt a negative decision on the payments.

This would mean the shipyards would be forced to repay the aid already received, effectively rendering them bankrupt.

The commission says it’s up to Poland to produce plans that ensure the long-term profitability of the shipyards, including measures to limit the distortion of competition caused by the state aid and increased finance from the companies that own the yards.

A commission spokesman also said today that the EU would have no problem with reconstruction plans that take two shipyards together, as long as it doesn’t include another injection of public money.

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