European Competition Commission warns about Special Economic Zones

Mario Monti, head of the European Competition Commission, warned on Friday that the Polish government will have to withdraw some privileges given to companies investing in Special Economic Zones (SSE), since investors’ obligations contradict European regulations. Poland has already fitted its law to EU standards and now must withdraw from the promises given to the companies. Monti said that creation of SSEs was illegal, as it broke Poland’s-EU treaty of 1991. In the EU public help for investors must always be limited, whereas tax exemptions in SSEs were not limited. Monti praised Poland for enacting the public help legislation that came into effect on Jan. 1 this year and for combatting monopolies. He expressed concern, however, about the automotive, textile, shipyard, chemical and metallurgic industries, in which public help regulations are frequently broken. (Rzeczpospolita Jan. 20-21, p.B1) M.K