Double standards?

By David Osler

Monday 10 November 2008

POLAND, one of the European Union’s more semi-detached members at the best of times, is hopping mad at the ruling from Brussels that it must sell the Gdynia and Szczecin shipyards, with the proceeds going to repay the billions of euros in illegal state subsidies that were pumped into the facilities over the years.

The long-running beef will only have been exacerbated by the announcement that the French government has taken a 33.3% blocking minority stake in STX France, owner of Chantiers de l’Atlantique.

The desirability or otherwise of state intervention in Europe’s shipbuilding is beside the point. Yes, it is a nonsense from any rational economic viewpoint. But boosting employment in industrial areas is always welcome with the electorate, and let’s not kid ourselves that Far Eastern yards play by free market rules either.

The issue here is one of double standards. President Nicolas Sarkozy has declared STX France a ‘strategic industry’, and it is arguable that a modern industrial nation should retain some shipbuilding capacity. But Poland can make much the same case.

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes insists she will make good on an earlier promise to visit the yards in person and explain her position to those who will lose their jobs as a result of the move. Ms Kroes is known as a tough cookie, of course. But less than two decades ago, Polish shipyard workers led the struggle that toppled the military dictatorship of General Jaruzelski. It would be rather ironic if they now caved in to Brussels without a fight.

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