Poland sent the EU restructuring plans for three major shipyards, which could face bankruptcy if forced to pay back state aid, the treasury minister said.
Brussels gave Warsaw until Thursday to present restructuring plans for three yards where the Solidarity anti-communist movement was born, which would allow them to avoid repaying an estimated €1.3 billion in state aid.
"We are very hopeful that the European Commission will accept those plans," Aleksander Grad told a news conference.
Brussels officials confirmed they had received the papers.
The European Commission, EU's executive arm, said earlier last month the Gdynia and Szczecin yards will have to repay the state aid if no restructuring and privatisation plans are delivered.
Poland's treasury must now sign privatisation agreements by mid-next month. It also awaits the EC's decision on agreeing the aid.
"If, for example, we consider that it is clearly inadequate, then we could take a negative decision within a matter of weeks," Jonathan Todd, the European Commission's spokesman on Competition, said in Brussels, before the plans were sent.
"If, on the other hand, we receive credible restructuring plans, then the decision could take longer."
The restructuring plans included a joint offer of Ukrainian Donbass's ISD for Gdansk and Gdynia, Polish Mostostal Chojnice's bid for Szczecin and a separate offer for Gdynia by Polish Shipbuilding Company.
The EU's conditions to approve the state subsidies are that there must be sufficient private investment to ensure the viability without further state aid. Also, that the distorting effect of the aid on competition must be offset by sufficient restructuring.
Brussels said the plans should envisage cuts in the yard's output. Shipyard workers protested outside the Commission's headquarters earlier this week against job cuts they expect.
Mr Grad said it was too early to know if there would be layoffs at the yards, which employ 15,000 workers.
Factbox
Polish shipyards endangered with bankruptcy
Key facts about the Gdansk, Szczecin and Gdynia shipyards, where the Solidarity anti-communist movement was born.
• The survival of the three shipyards has deep symbolic value for Poles as their workers played an important role in opposing and bringing down communist rule. The Gdansk shipyard was the birthplace of the Solidarity movement when after a 1980 strike led by Lech Walesa the Moscow-backed government agreed to allow independent trade unions.
• The three yards together employ 15,000 workers and produce about a dozen ships a year.
• Polish shipbuilders have struggled to compete with more modern, efficient and nimbler competitors, especially in Asia.
• They have been under threat since the EU demanded three years ago that they cut capacity or repay an estimated €1.3 billion in state subsidies they received since Poland joined the block in May 2004.