The grip of EU laws on public aid grow ever tighter

An official diplomatic, though strongly worded letter, on this matter will be sent to Warsaw probably on Friday. Brussels has warned Poland that the aid, which is currently being given to state companies and which has not be notified to the Commission as part of so-called transition procedures, might be treated as something new to the EU after May 1, 2004. This means that it would have to be stopped. The Competition and Consumer Protection Office (UOKiK) admitted that it had some problems with notifying Brussels, which was due to legal discrepancies. In June 2003, the government prepared an amendment to the public aid-supervision law, but the Sejm has still not analyzed it. UOKiK has stressed that only after amending the law, it would be possible to prepare detailed state aid programs which can be sent to Brussels. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 18) M.M.