EU says Gdansk shipyard merits sustainable, viable future

The European Commission believes Poland’s Gdansk shipyard merits a ‘sustainable and viable future’, spokesman Jonathan Todd said as competition commissioner Neelie Kroes met with worker representatives from the site. The commission has yet to make a decision on state aid for the shipyard after Polish authorities rejected demands to reduce capacity there.

Todd said Kroes is listening to the workers’ concerns and is working with the Polish authorities to ensure the shipyard’s long-term survival. “Clearly, the Gdansk shipyard deserves a sustainable and viable future and that is the goal of the commission,” he said. Polish vice-minister of economic affairs Pawel Poncyliusz has said that if Warsaw complied with the commission’s requests, the shipyard would have only one slipway left, out of three currently.

The commission has warned Poland it faces having to recover aid paid to Gdansk unless it provides information on ‘adequate capacity reductions’, as a feature of compliance with EU rules. Todd said the final decision will be made after the conclusion of negotiations with the Polish authorities. “But clearly the commission must be satisfied that there is sufficient capacity reduction to offset distortion of competition caused by subsidies received,” he said.