Poland's struggle to save the shipyards from bankruptcy enters the final stage. Polish government is expecting to sign official frame agreements on the privatization of Polish shipyards. Head of the Treasury Ministry, Aleksander Grad, said that the deals will include what was agreed on in earlier negotiations with investors.

Joanna Najfeld reports

The threat of bankruptcy of Polish shipyards is a result of their problems with the European Commission which questioned whether they should have been granted government aid. Brussels started demanding that the shipyards return subsidies they received after Poland joined the European Union in May of 2004, due to alleged irregularities in procedures.

Polish shipyards could still be saved if they were privatized. Successive Polish governments, however, contributed to neglecting the process of privatization and it seems uncertain now if Poland will manage to present viable privatization plans for the shipyards within the September 12th deadline set by the European Commission.

Treasury Minister Aleksander Grad says the situation is not hopeless and Poland can still make it: 'On Tuesday the government will look into it, on Wednesday there will be additional negotiations at the European Commission. On Thursday, experts will meet again back in Poland and on the 12th of September we will submit restructuring programs to Brussels.'

The minister also said that Poland resumed talks with a Dutch investor, rejected by the previous government, to, as Aleksander Grad explained, find out if this investor can still offer something within such a short time limit.

While the government is arguing that not all is lost, there have been rumors that parallel to the last chance attempts at rescuing the shipyards, the government is bracing for a public relations campaign to mitigate the public outrage at the loss of Polish shipyard industry.

'We have found out that the government, directly or via one shipyard, hired a PR company and a law firm, which are preparing the legal and media ground to declare the bankruptcy of the shipyards. We cannot disclose the source of this information, but we are sure of it, and we take responsibility for it,' said Marek Lewandowski, spokesman of the Gdynia shipyard. Aleksander Kozicki, deputy head of the Solidarity trade union at the Gdynia shipyard added that already some press information is being dissipated, with an aim to calm down the public opinion: 'If someone thinks that only by pacifying the public opinion they will manage to get away with the responsibility for the bankruptcy of the shipyards, they are wrong. I cannot say for sure if there will be manifestations, blockades or rallies - probably all of these interchangeably.'

The Treasury Ministry has denied these allegations.

The shipyard issue caused additional chaos in the country, with the government blaming their predecessors for the present situation. The opposition replied accusing the present government of trying to cover up their clumsiness and neglect of the issue by accusing previous cabinets.
 
Poland hopes to submit the programs to Brussels within the EC deadline, but Brussels can still reject the plans, and leave Polish shipyards to go bankrupt. Some experts still hope Brussels will spare the companies.

Marcin Peterlik of the Gdańsk Institute for Market Economics says this is Poland's last chance to save the shipyards: 'If the Commission accepts the plans submitted by the Poland's government, the case will be clear. But if they are not accepted, I am afraid we will not get another chance. However, I still hope, we will make it this time. In my opinion, this decision has much more to do with politics than economy and that is why I believe these companies will not go bankrupt.'

However, the guarantees of a happy end to the story are far from obvious. Piotr Bonisławski, Polish Radio External Service correspondent in Brussels: 'Although the deadline for coming up with the proposal for Polish shipyards is passing next week, the track record of similar cases from other member states - Germany, Netherlands and the others shows that the chances of successful end, from the point of view of the Polish shipyards, are quite slim.'