The fate of Polish shipyards, broadband Internet still rare in Poland, and government education reform is falling apart...
Daily press review by Joanna Najfeld
Has the fate of Polish shipyards already been decided? wonders GAZETA WYBORCZA. Szczecin and Gdynia shipyards face bankruptcy after European Commissioner for Competiton Neelie Kroes confirmed she would propose that the European Commission rejects Polish restructuring plans for the shipyards. If the final decision of the Commission is negative, Polish governement members say they might appeal the verdict at the European Court of Justice. However, not many believe in successful political interventions, says GAZETA WYBORCZA. Central and local government are already bracing for the shipyards' bankruptcy and massive staff reductions. Gdynia and Szczecin shipyard workers say they will stage aggressive protests. 'It's hard to resist a bitter reflection that one day the European Commission is ready to stretch the rules to allow for a public intervention in the banking sector, costing tens of billions of euro, claiming this is not "harmful public aid" but a "market operation". The next day the same commissioner for competition Neelie Kroes from Holland announces that Polish shipyards deserve no leniency - they have to return state aid, though in their case it is much smaller and spread over years', notices Konrad Niklewicz in GAZETA WYBORCZA.
The access to broadband Internet in Poland is among the lowest in Europe, alarms the DZIENNIK daily. Only Bulgaria has proportionally less citizens who use broadband Internet on regular basis. In Poland, the percentage is 8.4%. In Denmark, where the access to broadband Internet is most wide-spread, 35.6% of residents use it. Total "Digital exclusion", as the European Commission calls it in a report, threatens 40% of Poles, while the average in the European Union is around 7%. Only Romania is in a worse situation. The European Commission wants to proclaim access to broadband Internet as one of basic consumer's rights as of the year 2009. 'It will be like the telephones in Sweden. Even a resident of a wild area, somewhere near the North Pole, can force providers to install a telephone line for him. This will be the case with the Internet. Providers will no longer be able to refuse somebody their service, arguing that it does not pay,' one expert explained the DZIENNIK daily.
Is the government reform of school education going into pieces asks RZECZPOSPOLITA. The controversial project involves extending the institutionalized schooling obligation on 6-year old children. Tens of thousands of parents have protested, arguing that children must not be forced into a school system that is not even prepared to provide decent learning conditions to older children. The government has already backed off from the idea of increasing working hours for teachers. Sending 6 year olds to school does not have too many supporters either. 'The education reform is over,' comments former education minister professor Miroslaw Handke for RZECZPOSPOLITA daily.