POLAND’S deputy treasury minister Zdzislaw Gawlik has declared that Warsaw has reached a compromise with the EU and that a bill to allow its bankruptcy-threatened shipyards to be sold and restructured will be sent this week to the EC.

 

Polish press reports suggested that the European Commission is expected to rule later this week that the Gdynia and Szczecin yards can be sold off – but that Poland will still have to repay millions of euros in public aid that Warsaw has provided them since the country joined the EU in 2004, in violation of competition rules.

 

Gawlik said the selling process would be similar to bankruptcy proceedings, but the yards will not in fact go into liquidation. He also said Poland's Industrial Development Agency would be charged with administering the sale, expected within three months.

 

EC competition chief Neelie Kroes sent a letter last week telling the Polish government that time was running out to make new proposals for the yards