Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-21-Speech-2-440"
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"en.20081021.43.2-440"2
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"Madam President, the Commission is well aware of the historic importance of the Polish shipyards, and that is why we have been working very hard to find a solution that will allow the restructuring of the sector in a way that provides a livelihood for the regions concerned. However, we depend on the cooperation of the Polish authorities to arrive at a viable solution. To be quite clear, the state aid investigation in these cases has been pending for around four years.
But the Commission is not in the business of just saying ‘no’. We have been working actively to help the Polish authorities come up with a solution that would ensure a viable commercial future for the economic centres of Gdańsk, Gdynia and Szczecin and ensure sustainable jobs.
According to this scenario, the assets of the Gdynia and the Szczecin shipyards would be sold on market terms in several bundles. The assets would be put into bundles following an open, unconditional and non-discriminatory tender; and the remaining shell company would use the proceeds from the sale of the assets to repay the aid received over the years and would be liquidated, and the buyers of the assets would then be able to speedily resume economic activities at the shipyard sites, without the burden of having to repay the large quantities of state aid received by the yards over the years. They may re-employ even more people than would be the case if the restructuring plans of 12 December were implemented.
I can only assume that any investor willing to take on the yards – or at least some of their current liabilities – would be even happier to acquire the most important productive assets free of debts and develop them in a competitive and sustainable way. The final outcome would probably be positive in two respects: on the one hand, the number of workers left without a job would be lower than foreseen in the restructuring plan submitted by the Polish authorities and, on the other hand, the workers re-employed by the purchasers of the yards’ assets would have much more stable working prospects within viable undertakings, because the burden of past debts would have been lifted.
That solution, which would be in line with the recent precedent of Olympic Airways, would allow a fresh restart of economic activities at the shipyard sites, also benefiting the workers there.
The Commission has raised that possibility with the Polish authorities. We have done that several times, and I sincerely hope that they will take advantage of our flexibility to bring us a concrete proposal. Technical discussions on the possible implementation of the ‘Olympic Airways’ solution for the Gdynia and the Szczecin shipyards are being held between the Polish authorities and Commission officials.
As for Gdańsk, I think there is a good chance of reaching a positive outcome if there remains flexibility and good will on both sides. You will naturally ask me: why this approach for Gdańsk? There are two reasons: firstly, Gdańsk has already been sold to a private operator which injected fresh money into it and, secondly, this yard’s liabilities for past aid are far more limited compared to the Gdynia and the Szczecin shipyards.
On the Commissions side, we have already indicated to the Polish authorities our position in assessing the compensatory measures needed to comply with EC state aid rules. Because the yard has received less aid in the past, we can be less demanding in this respect. The quid pro quo for the openness on the Commission’s part is that the Polish authorities must now submit a draft restructuring plan for Gdańsk in order to permit any outstanding issues to be discussed, and so far – and I regret this – we have not received such a plan, and it is essential that the Polish authorities provide it quickly.
Moreover, the Polish Government can request support from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund – an application which is likely to be successful – and the size of the intervention would depend on the amount of co-funding the Polish Government is ready to invest, as the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund co-finances a maximum of 50% of the cost.
The European Globalisation Fund analysed by the Commission to date the amount per person to be supported, ranged between EUR 500 and EUR 10 000 from the fund, to which must be added an equal amount to be funded by the Member States.
To conclude, I can say that the Commission has been very forthcoming in assessing these cases and has shown a considerable amount of flexibility. We have done everything we can, and we will continue to work with the Polish authorities to find an economically viable and socially sustainable solution which is in line with EC competition law and established Commission precedents.
The investigation concerns a substantial amount of operating aid to the Szczecin, Gdynia and Gdańsk shipyards. Without even counting the state guarantees from 2002 until now, the Gdynia shipyard received from the Polish state – which means from the Polish taxpayers – aid amounting to around EUR 167 000 per worker. That is approximately EUR 24 000 per worker per year, and that means that the subsidy to each shipyard worker is at least double the average annual income of Polish workers.
Now the ball is in the court of the Polish authorities. The future of the shipyards and of their workers depends on the Polish authorities’ willingness to cooperate with the Commission to quickly find a positive solution in the framework I outlined earlier.
Even without counting the state guarantees, the total aid received since 2002 by the Gdynia and Szczecin shipyards amount in nominal value to around EUR 700 million and EUR 1 billion respectively.
Despite all that money, the yards and the future of the workers remain vulnerable. That, I would stress, is what really scares me. I think that the future of the workers needs to be taken into account. They have avoided the painful but necessary restructuring that, for example, the German and the Spanish shipyards have undertaken and which Malta is also preparing for at this moment.
At all times in those past four years the Commission has had an open door for the successive Polish governments. I have met quite a number of ministers and prime ministers of Polish governments. We have tried again and again to reach an agreement and, unfortunately – and I say it with a sad heart – the Polish authorities did not make use of those possibilities.
In July of this year the Commission came to the conclusion that the latest restructuring plans did not ensure the viability of the shipyards, but, again, conscious of the importance of the issue for the Polish economy and for Polish society, we, the Commission, showed flexibility and offered two more months for new final plans to be presented by 12 September.
During the summer, Commission officials remained constantly available and gave feedback to the Polish authorities on the draft submitted to them. I have now carefully assessed the restructuring plans submitted by the Polish authorities on 12 September. Unfortunately, I cannot see how to conclude that those revised final plans will ensure the viability of the yards. Indeed, the plans require even more public money to be pumped in in future, including money for the day-to-day operating aid.
It should also be underlined that the restructuring plans submitted on 12 September – and I am talking about the plans of the Polish Government – foresee job reductions of approximately 40%. However, these sacrifices would be made without giving any prospect of sustainable employment to the remaining workers, as the yards would very likely not become viable and would continue to need state support at the expense of the Polish taxpayers.
That is not an acceptable outcome. It is not acceptable from the EU competition law perspective, but also not acceptable for the future of the shipyards. Not acceptable to their workers and more generally for the Polish economy. Therefore, as the situation currently stands, I do not see how to avoid the adoption of negative positions on the Gdynia and Szczecin shipyards."@en1
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