(WARSAW) - Treasury Minister Aleksander Grad Wednesday said he was pleased by a European Commission decision to grant Poland more time to privatise the country's ailing but politically symbolic shipyards.

"I'm pleased by the decision of the European Commission, it was very much needed," Grad told reporters in Warsaw.

"I'll be happy on September 12 when we will have a restructuring program agreed with the European Commission," he added.

Earlier Wednesday, the Commission gave Poland's liberal government until September 12 to present viable privatisation plans for the yards in Gdynia and Szczecin.

Brussels has also allowed a third yard in Gdansk, acquired last year by Ukraine's Donbass group, until September to present restructuring plans.

"I'm a moderate optimist," Grad said, noting that more than a dozen potential investors, some from as far afield as India and the Middle East, had expressed interest in the yards since June.

Rejecting existing government restructuring plans as untenable, EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes Wednesday said the commission was nonetheless prepared to wait until September 12 for a last-ditch Polish effort to save the Baltic Sea yards from the almost certain bankruptcy they risk for breaches of EU rules on state subsidies.

"The formal adoption of the negative decision is postponed," said Kroes, who polices commercial across the 27-nation European Union.

Minister Grad said the Polish government has hired independent experts and legal consultants in Brussels to help prepare the restructuring and privatisation plans ahead of the September 12 deadline.

The minister also said the Commission was considering the possibility of allowing the Polish treasury to "partially absorb" old debts racked up by the communist-era shipyards.

A probe launched in 2005 by the Commission found Poland had given the yards 2.1 billion euros (3.3 billion dollars) in public aid since 2002.

Warsaw argues the total is far lower but Brussels may order the the yards repay a comparable sum should it fail to accept the government plan on September 12.

The move would all but certainly bankrupt the historic yards, which became symbols of Poland's anti-communist opposition for the role they played in the 1970s and 1980s.

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