Neelie Kroes, Europees Commissaris voor Mededingingsbeleid, verklaring over Herstructureren van Poolse scheepswerven, tijdens plenaire zitting van het Europees Parlement, Straatsburg, 21 oktober (en)
Neelie Kroes
European Commissioner for Competition Policy
Restructuring of Polish shipyards
Declaration by Commissioner Neelie Kroes at plenary session of European Parliament
Strasbourg, 21st October 2008
The European Commission is well aware of the historic importance and the symbolic value of the Polish shipyards. This is why we have been working very hard to find a solution that would allow the restructuring of the sector in a way that provides a livelihood for the regions concerned. However, we depend on the co-operation of the Polish authorities to arrive at a viable solution.
The state aid investigation in these cases has been pending for around four years.
The investigation concerns a substantial amount of operating aid to the Szczecin, Gdynia and Gdansk Shipyards. Without even counting the State guarantees, from 2002 until now, Gdynia Shipyard received from the Polish State (which means from the Polish taxpayers) aid amounting to around €167,000 per worker. That is approximately €24,000 per worker, per year: meaning the subsidy to each shipyard worker is at least double the average annual income of Polish workers! Even without counting the State guarantees, the total aid received since 2002 by the Gdynia and Szczecin Shipyards amounts, in nominal value, to, respectively, around 700 million Euro and 1 billion Euro. Despite all this money, the yards and the future of the workers remain vulnerable. They have avoided the painful but necessary restructuring that, for example, German and Spanish Shipyards have undertaken, and which Malta is also preparing for.
At all times in these past four years the Commission has had an open door for the successive Polish governments. We have tried again and again to reach an agreement. Unfortunately, the Polish authorities did not make use of these 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 society, we showed flexibility and offered two more months for new final plans to be presented by the 12th of September.
During the summer, Commission officials remained constantly available and gave feedback to the Polish authorities on the drafts submitted to them.
I have now carefully assessed the restructuring plans submitted by the Polish authorities on the 12th of September. Unfortunately, I cannot see how to conclude that these revised final plans will ensure the viability of the yards. Indeed, the plans require even more public money to be pumped in the future, including day-to-day operating aid.
It should also be underlined that the restructuring plans submitted on 12th September foresee job reductions of approximately 40%. However, these sacrifices would be made without giving any perspective 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.
This 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, of 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 decisions on the Gdynia and Szczecin Shipyards.
But the Commission is not in the business of just saying "no" - we have been working actively to help the Polish authorities to come up with a solution that would ensure a viable commercial future for the economic centres of Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin and ensure sustainable jobs.
According to this scenario, the assets of the Gdynia and Szczecin shipyards would be sold on market terms (in several bundles) following an open, unconditional and non-discriminatory tender. 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. The buyers of the assets would then be able to speedily resume economic activities at the shipyards' sites without the burden of having to repay the large quantities of state aid received by the yards over the years, and may reemploy even more people than would be the case if the 12th September restructuring plans were implemented.
I can only assume that any investor willing to take on the yards with 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 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 plans submitted by the Polish authorities and, on the other hand, the workers reemployed by the purchasers of the yards' assets would have much more stable working perspectives within viable undertakings, because the burden of past debts would have been lifted.
This solution, which would be in line with the recent Olympic Airways precedent, would allow a fresh restart of economic activity at the shipyards' sites, benefiting also the workers there. The Commission has raised this possibility with the Polish authorities 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 Gdynia and Szczecin shipyards are being held between the Polish authorities and Commission officials.
As for Gdansk, I think that that there is a good chance to reach a positive outcome if there remains flexibility and good will on both sides. This is because (i) this yard has already been sold to a private operator which injected fresh money in it and (ii) the liabilities for past aid of this yard are more limited compared to the Gdynia and Szczecin Shipyards.
On the side of the Commission, 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 this openness on the Commission part is that the Polish authorities must now submit a draft restructuring plan for Gdansk in order to permit any outstanding issue to be discussed. So far, 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 (EGF), an application which is likely to be successful. The size of the intervention would depend on the amount of co-funding the Polish Government is ready to invest, as the EGF co-finances 50% of the costs at maximum. In the EGF cases analysed by the Commission to date the amount per person to be supported ranged between €500 (Lithuania -Textiles) and €10,000 (Italy-Textile) from the EGF, to which must be added an equal amount to be funded by the Member State.
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 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. 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 positive solutions in the framework I have just outlined.