The EU, in its wisdom, has decided that now would be a good time to grant Poland a 54.5 million euro aid package to help launch the Dell plant that recently moved to Poland from Limerick (See here).
RTE say; "After an in-depth investigation, the EU competition authority said the aid was compatible with the bloc's rules, despite protests from Ireland, where Dell is closing its factory in Limerick...The Commission said its investigation had shown that job losses in Ireland would not be a consequence of the aid granted by the Polish authorities to the Lodz factory."
Patricia McKenna of the People's Movement says (and I agree with her); “this decision by the European Commission is a slap in the face to Irish workers and exposes the EU’s hypocrisy and disregard for Irish jobs. It is truly ironic that the EU Commission is here in Ireland urging Irish voters to vote ‘Yes’ to the Lisbon Treaty under the guise of jobs and the economy, while it is
allowing new member states like Poland to provide massive financial bribes to companies to move their operations out of Ireland.”
See the full press release by Patricia McKenna here
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Let's be clear: the EU did not decide to grant Poland an aid package. The EU decided that the subsidy offered by Poland to Dell did not infringe competition law. No EU money is involved.
ReplyDeleteBesides, the EU has approved numerous cases of Irish State subsidies in the past. Recent ones include public funding to bridge the broadband communications gap in Ireland , aid to Centocor Inc. for the setting-up of a biopharmaceutical production plant in Ireland and grant aid of up to €500 000 per firm in difficulty due to the crisis.
Dell has said that it wanted to move from Ireland and was closing its Limerick plant anyway. The fact that it chose to relocate in Poland as opposed to, say, the UK, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia or wherever, is neither here nor there.