(BRUSSELS) - The European commission stepped up pressure on Poland Wednesday to come up with viable restructuring plans for three troubled shipyards, warning that it could require state aid to be recovered as early as next week.

"The timing of the decision is still open but the decision could be as early as next week, July 16," Commission spokesman for competition issues Jonathan Todd told journalists in Brussels.

Although Polish authorities had until Thursday to provide "further clarification" of restructuring plans, Todd said that "we've had extra time, extra time has now expired."

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes had "made very clear that the plans thus far did not meet the requirements of the commission as regards the long-term viability of the yards."

"Unless all conditions are met then we will have no option than to go for a negative decision," he said.

The commission has repeatedly threatened that if Warsaw fails to produce what it considers viable restructuring plans for the shipyards it would have to order the government to recover past state aid from them.

After several past efforts fell through, the government has been struggling to come up with restructuring plans for the Szczecin, Gdynia and Gdansk shipyards on the Baltic coast which would satisfy the commission.

EU rules on shipbuilding require state aid to be based on far-reaching restructuring plans, which must also include the participation of private investors.

The Szczecin, Gdynia and Gdansk shipyards are etched in the national mind in Poland because dozens of people were killed there when security forces fired on workers demonstrating against food price rises in 1970.

The Gdansk yard holds even greater importance for Poles because it was also the cradle of Solidarity, the trade union movement which was born during a strike in 1980 and, after surviving a crackdown in 1981, emerged to drive the communist regime from power in 1989.

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