Will Poland renegade on Copenhagen summit over steel restructuring?

According to Gazeta Wyborcza, detailed plans of restructuring the steel sector presented in December 2002 have been rejected by the EU. As a result, the government has until Friday to prepare a new version, otherwise steel mills will get no help from the EU. The Commission stated that there is insufficient information on mills strategies towards their subsidiaries, the level of public help is different from that agreed upon and there is lack of information on the exact role of the government. Deputy Economy Minister Andrzej Szarawarski assured journalists that the revised strategy will be ready by January 10. If these plans are not accepted by the EU, than, "We will include the rejected parts in the accession treaty and afterwards negotiate them with the whole EU," explained Szarawarski. This would mean that the government would have to start negotiations once again, while Prime Minister Leszek Miller declared that these had been finally closed during the Copenhagen summit. (Gazeta Wyborcza, pp. 1, 20) M.M.