(28 Oct 2008)
1. Wide of flares exploding on the pavement with demonstrators in the background, gathered in front of EU Council
2. Mid of Gdansk shipyard workers holding banner
3. Wide of demonstrator holding solidarity trade union flag and watching blue smoke rise from exploded flares
4. Close up of blue flares and another flare exploding
5. Wide of crowd and shipyard workers waving flags in the air
6. Man banging cymbals together in protest
7. Wide of police standing in line before crowd of demonstrators barring access to EU Council area
8. Wide of crowd waving flags and banners
STORYLINE:
Some 200 Gdansk shipyard workers demonstrated in Brussels on Tuesday against the EU Commission's previous request to the Polish government to restructure ailing shipyards in the city.
The EU executive previously admonished Poland's current rescue plan for the yards in the north of the country saying they do not comply with EU state aid rules and would seriously distort competition. However, the EU Commission postponed its final decision.
The European Union says Poland must sell the assets of two troubled shipyards in order to rescue them from the possibility of bankruptcy.
EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes says selling the yards on market terms in several parts would prevent workers from losing their jobs and make debt a more bearable factor for the new companies.
The Gdynia and Szczecin shipyards, which employ thousands of workers, are currently kept in business only by hefty government subsidies.
Kroes says the current plans of the Polish government would require more subsidies and not guarantee profitability.
EU regulators say they can only rule that the Polish government was right to pump money into the Gdynia, Szczecin and Gdansk yards if the funds were used to prepare them to stand on their own as private businesses. State money cannot prop up unprofitable companies, they say.
Polish dock workers travelled to Brussels and staged a protest to demand the EU protect their jobs.
Since at least 2004, the yards have not made a profit on any of the ships produced and would not have survived without the subsidies.
The EU says it cannot allow Poland to subsidise its yards when other countries such as Germany have undergone a painful process of restructuring in the 1990s that saw them slash capacity to become economically viable.
The docks have played a major role in Polish history, especially Gdansk, the birthplace of the Solidarity trade union, which launched the nation's peaceful anti-communist revolt in the 1980s.
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