Professor John Robertson OBA
Amidst fake indignation over the loss of the new ferries contract to a Polish shipyard and attempts to blame the SNP for what the media and the opposition parties have done to the reputation of a Scottish shipyard, the fairness of the competition has to be questioned.
In November 2008, BBC UK reported:
The European Commission has ordered Poland to reclaim more than 3bn euros of state subsidies paid to two shipyards which were facing bankruptcy. The move means Poland will have to sell the Gdynia and Szczecin yards, putting some 60,000 jobs at risk. The commission said the subsidies were unfair on other EU shipbuilders and has promised to help anyone made redundant.1
In January 2018, Safety4Sea reported:
In September 2016, Poland adopted a law giving shipyards operating in Poland an option to pay a 1% flat-rate tax on sales from the building and conversion of ships, instead of paying the generally applicable corporate or personal income tax. Thus, shipyards paid less tax than under the normal corporate income tax (19% on taxable income) or personal income tax regime (18% or 32% on taxable income for natural persons, or 19% for entrepreneurs).
The Commission investigated the proposed tax incentive for shipyards after Poland notified the measure to the Commission in December 2016. The Commission does not question Poland’s right to decide on its tax system. However, under the EU Treaty the Commission has to verify that the tax system respects EU State aid rules and does not selectively favour certain companies over others, the Commission noted.2
How important might subsidies like the above have been in the recent decision?
The Ferguson bid for the SVRP is understood to have ranked well for quality but missed out due to the difficulties in matching overseas yards on cost.
Chief financial officer David Dishon said: “We are very proud of our bid and although we priced it competitively, we were up against extremely tough competition from yards outside the UK which benefit from significantly reduced operating costs and advanced capital investment programmes.3
The very job for BBC Scotland’s Disclosure team?
Sources:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
IMHO, how the Polish shipyards operate is none of our business, we left the EU of our own accord and are in no position to complain. If they are the best financial option then that’s ok with me.
If Ferguson’s had won the contract, the media hoo ha, would have been just as loud, SCOTS TAXPAYERS PAYING OVER THE ODDS FOR SOME FERRIES.
Damned if they do, and damned if they dinna.
Hopefully building the ferries in Poland will put them beyond the reach of the malign influence of the British Establishment, as experienced with the Glen Sannox affair.
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points fully taken Alex (and, to be clear, I believe that leaving the EU was an act of gross self inflicted self harm brought about by Johnson and his Neo liberal cohort) but
how about we check out if the claims of government subsidies are harming our ship building industry here in Scotland. If that is found to be so, we give the contract to the Ferguson shipyard to protect Scottish jobs.
A rather pleasing byproduct of doing so would be watching LINO, and Sarwar in particular, squirming as they try to u-turn so they could turn it into another Scotland bad story. Scots have to wake up at some point and realise just what a bunch of lying anti-Scottish charlatans LINOs Scottish accounting unit are.
How about a billboard or ten.
Think Scottish, buy Scottish, vote Scottish. I’m happy to contribute. Anyone prepared to join me?
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Scotland has far more islands than other places. The EU rules and regulations can be negotiated. If the Scottish economy brings benefits to the islands. A case could be made for subsidised ship building. To benefit the islanders. The EU gave subsidies, grants and loans to the Crofters and wind turbines. In support of small farmers in difficult terrain and environment benefits from wind turbines. Producing food and energy.
Brexit has cost Scotland £Billions. MUP was supported by the EU on health grounds over capital.
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