Polish shipyards in trade-off with EU Treaty?[fr] 

Gazeta Wyborcza, a respected Polish daily, writes that the initiative came from Poland. The European Commission will make a statement on 16 July about state aid in the case of three Polish shipyards. If they are found to have received illegal public aid and ordered to return it, they will collapse, the daily writes, adding that the chances of a favourable decision by the Commission are slim. 

Warsaw is thus searching for another way, pushing for a decision on the shipyards at political level in the EU Council, Gazeta Wyborcza further writes. 

"It is possible that if President Lech Kaczynski promised Nicolas Sarkozy, his French counterpart, that he will sign the treaty, the French president could, with Germany's support, try to exert pressure on the Council and the individual EU capitals to accommodate Poland," the newspaper speculates. 

While it appears difficult to imagine that France, even as the holder of the EU Presidency, could short-circuit the Commission on state aid decisions, the international press noticed an evolution in President Kaczynski's position with respect to ratifying the Lisbon Treaty. 

Backing away from an earlier remark that signing the pact would be "pointless" (EurActiv 01/07/08), Kaczynski said in Paris on 13 July that Poland "won't be an obstacle" to the Lisbon Treaty.