The European Union on Thursday warned the Polish government that its patience is "becoming thin" over long-drawn-out attempts to restructure the shipyards where the Solidarity trade union movement was born, according to dpa. "The European Commission's patience is becoming very thin - we have seen a number of deadlines for restructuring plans missed, so we would need something very concrete and very soon," a spokesman for the EU's executive told journalists in Brussels. Regarding the shipyards in Szczecin and Gdynia, on Poland's Baltic coast, the European Commission, "on the basis of the information that it currently has, has no choice but to make preparations for a negative decision requiring the repayment of state aid," he said. "If the Polish authorities produce within a short space of time new, concrete and solutions that could be implemented immediately ... the commission would naturally assess such proposed solutions before taking a decision," he said. As for the Gdansk shipyard, the commission has given the Polish government one month to give it more information on plans to restructure the yard, and "if we do not receive (it) within one month, the commission will have to assess the situation on the basis of the information it currently has," the spokesman said. At stake is a package of support measures thought to be worth over 5 billion zlotys (2.3 billion dollars at current prices) which the Polish government has made to keep the shipyards afloat. As the cradle of the Solidarity movement, the shipyards are seen in Poland as a monument not just to the struggle with Communism but to the beginning of the end of the Cold War. But under the strict competition rules of the EU, which Poland joined in 2004, state aid such as that handed out to the three ageing shipyards has to accompanied by restructuring measures designed to keep them on their feet without further handouts - otherwise it has to be paid back. In June 2005 the commission launched an investigation into the bail-out packages - a case which is still ongoing. Last October the commission warned the Polish government that its plan for the Gdansk shipyard would have to be accompanied by the closure of two of the yard's three slipways. The recent news that a private investor has decided not to buy the Gdynia and Szczecin yards after all - rendering a previous restructuring plan obsolete - means that those yards, too, could face having to pay back the government money unless they find a new buyer and present a serious restructuring proposal, the spokesman said.
