Polish Government News

Norwegian Offshore Wind has signed an MoU with The Polish Investment and Trade Agency, aiming to boost offshore wind collaboration between the two countries.“These two markets have different strengths within offshore wind, and we therefore have a lot to gain on establishing strong connections between both supply chain companies and developers,” says Arvid Nesse, manager of Norwegian Offshore Wind, an organisation with 380 members.Nesse points out that Poland has experience within construction…

The prosperity of port cities, throughout history, has been closely tied to the ports’ ability to adapt to economic and technological change. As ships got bigger, ports had to keep up. This has often seen the port proper grow apart from the city whose name it bears because the old harbor could no longer accommodate the needs of modernized shipping.In those European cities located by rivers, port activities have often migrated towards the estuary. The ships headed for the port of Liverpool now berth in docks stretching north of the original Royal Albert dock…

The Polish government has approved draft legislation that would allow the military to sink an enemy ship targeting a key gas pipeline from Norway via the Baltic Sea following NATO's warning that Russia might sabotage undersea energy infrastructure. In "exceptional situations", and when other options had been exhausted, the military would be allowed to foil a terrorist attack by sinking an enemy ship or airship, the government said on Thursday. A key ally of Ukraine and a hub for deliveries of weapons to Kyiv, Poland says it has regularly found itself the target of Russian espionage.

Aerospace, defense and security company Babcock said it has secured the first export contract for its Arrowhead 140 (AH140) frigate through a design license agreement with PT PAL Indonesia (Persero), a state-owned enterprise that builds and maintains ships for military and commercial use from its facilities in Surabaya, Indonesia. The deal comes two years since Babcock’s AH140 design was first announced as the preferred bidder for the UK Type 31 frigate program at DSEI 2019, with…

Treasury bonds are issued for the Port of Gdynia Authority S.A. (PGA) to secure funds for the Outer Port Gdynia construction project, funding to be invested in building the access infrastructure in the form of breakwaters.The Port of Gdynia Authority S.A. formally launched a procedure to select a private partner for the “Construction of the Outer Port in the Port of Gdynia” project. The deadline for submitting applications for admission to the qualification procedure is scheduled for January 15…

The Port of Gdynia Authority (PGA) in Poland has recently launched a formal procedure to select a private partner for the construction of the outer port in the Port of Gdynia.The project is a strategic investment of the Port of Gdynia Authority S.A., and is enlisted in the Polish government’s Seaports Development Program. The outer port development project, which is being prepared as a public-private partnership, consists of the construction of a new deep-water container terminal with an annual transshipment capacity of 2.5 million TEU.

Europe’s fastest growing port, the Port of Gdansk, has outlined huge expansion plans designed to double its cargo volumes to 100m tonnes a year, during a high-level maritime and business delegation from Poland to Singapore.The delegation marks 50-years of diplomatic ties between the countries and is being organized with PSA International, the Singapore based global ports group. In May this year PSA International formally acquired DCT Gdansk, the largest container terminal in Poland, in partnership with the Polish Development Fund and the IFM Global Infrastructure Fund.The Port of Gdansk Authority vice-president for infrastructure Marcin Osowski outlined plans to build a new €2.8billion Euro Central Port as ‘the biggest maritime investment project in Europe’…

The Polish government and the Polskie LNG company signed a grant agreement on 24 April for the extension of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal in Świnoujście, in north-western Poland on the Baltic Sea coast.Almost EUR 128 million from the European Regional Development Fund is invested in extending this terminal, which is the only facility of its size in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe.Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu said: "The extension of the Świnoujście terminal will help diversify natural gas supply sources and improve the country’s energy security. This is a new example of the Energy Union in motion, supported…

Sweden’s new signals intelligence (SIGINT) vessel was launched from the Nauta Shiprepair Yard in Gdynia, Poland.Outfitting and equipment installation will take place in Nauta Shiprepair Yard, after which the vessel will undergo harbour and sea trials. The ship will then sail to Saab’s shipyard in Karlskrona to complete outfitting of special systems.The launching ceremony took place in PGZ Stocznia Wojenna in Gdynia on April 17 and was attended by representatives of the Polish government, the Polish Armaments Group (PGZ) and Saab, as well as representatives of the Royal Swedish Navy, the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), Swedish National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA)…

Russia is sharply upgrading the firepower of its Baltic Fleet in Kaliningrad by adding warships armed with long-range cruise missiles to counter NATO's build-up in the region, Russian media reported on Wednesday. There was no official confirmation from Moscow, but the reports will raise tensions in the Baltic, already heightened since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, and are likely to cause alarm in Poland and Lithuania which border Kaliningrad. The reported deployment comes as NATO is planning its biggest military build-up on Russia's borders since the Cold War to deter possible Russian aggression and will be seen as a riposte to that.

Defence and security company Saab has signed a teaming agreement with the Polish defence company MESKO, a member of Polish Armament Group (PGZ), for the long-term maintenance and support of the Polish Navy's RBS15 Mk3 surface-to-surface missile system. Contracted in 2006, the RBS15 Mk3 is in service on-board the Polish Navy's Orkan-class fast attack craft. The teaming agreement, which was signed in September at the International Defence Industry Exhibition, in Kielce, Poland, is a long-term agreement with the goal to strengthen the co-operation between Saab and MESKO. It is also to establish a centre of maintenance and support in Skarzysko-Kamienna, Poland for the RBS15 missiles, which in turn will increase the efficiency of the RBS15 Mk3 maintenance for the Polish Navy.

The worst dumper prize goes to IDAN OFER, son of shipping magnate Sammy Ofer. Idan Ofer owns QUANTUM PACIFIC GROUP and has a controlling stake in Israel’s largest publicly traded company, ISRAEL CORPORATION. Combined, these shipping companies sold the highest number of vessels for substandard breaking operations in 2015: nine in total, with six of them going to Bangladesh, where conditions are known to be worst. GREEK SHIP OWNERS sold the most ships to South Asian shipbreaking yards in 2015, with 87 ships in total. Since the NGO Shipbreaking Platform started to compile data on world-wide ship dismantling practices in 2009, Greek shipping companies have unceasingly topped the list of owners that opt for dirty and dangerous shipbreaking.

The famous Gdansk shipyard is once again in trouble as Its new Ukrainian operator has run out of money to pay wages. In its golden years, the 1980s, 17,000 people worked in Gdansk shipyard, reports Deutsche Welle. Those times are long gone. The shipyard faced bankruptcy twice. Then a Ukrainian investor came along with plans to build modern high tech ships and a factory for wind turbines. But the investor's plans haven't worked out, and the Solidarity trade union has taken industrial action.

Polish consumers could save money and the Polish Government earn billions of zloty in extra import duties if the bulk of container traffic from the Far East was directed through Polish ports rather than through German and Benelux ports, according to Boris Wenzel, CEO of the Deepwater Container Terminal in Gdansk. A switch to Gdansk would also create thousands of new jobs in the Tri-city and reduce the high Co2 emissions associated with trucking and railing containers to Poland from ports like Rotterdam and Hamburg, believes Mr. Wenzel. “Over the past decade Hamburg and Rotterdam have taken advantage of Poland’s rapid economic growth to develop into this country’s largest container gateways“ says Mr. Wenzel.

DCT Gdansk, the leading Polish container terminal played host to one of the most important politicians in Poland, when on September 7, 2011, DCT was visited by Cezary Grabarczyk, Minister of Infrastructure in Donald Tusk’s government. The Minister of Infrastructure met with DCT Gdansk's CEO and a representative of Macquarie, the largest private infrastructure investor in the world, to discuss infrastructure priorities in Poland and the opportunities presented by the development of a major hub port in Gdansk for the Polish economy.

1986-An HC-130 from AIRSTA Elizabeth City located the disabled 44-foot Polish sailing vessel Gaudeamus with six Polish citizens aboard about 400 miles east of New York.  A motor vessel was on scene with the Gaudeamus when it was found by the HC-130 and remainded there until CGC Taney arrived the next day and took the boat in tow.  CGC Cape Henlopen rendezvoused with Taney and took over the tow to Newport, Rhode Island.  The Polish Embassy sent the Coast Guard a diplomatic note extending the thanks of the Polish government for the Coast Guard's assistance in this case (Source: USCG Historian’s Office)

1986-An HC-130 from AIRSTA Elizabeth City located the disabled 44-foot Polish sailing vessel Gaudeamus with six Polish citizens aboard about 400 miles east of New York.  A motor vessel was on scene with the Gaudeamus when it was found by the HC-130 and remainded there until CGC Taney arrived the next day and took the boat in tow.  CGC Cape Henlopen rendezvoused with Taney and took over the tow to Newport, Rhode Island.  The Polish Embassy sent the Coast Guard a diplomatic note extending the thanks of the Polish government for the Coast Guard's assistance in this case. (Source: USCG Historian’s Office)

1986-An HC-130 from AIRSTA Elizabeth City located the disabled 44-foot Polish sailing vessel Gaudeamus with six Polish citizens aboard about 400 miles east of New York.  A motor vessel was on scene with the Gaudeamus when it was found by the HC-130 and remainded there until CGC Taney arrived the next day and took the boat in tow.  CGC Cape Henlopen rendezvoused with Taney and took over the tow to Newport, Rhode Island.  The Polish Embassy sent the Coast Guard a diplomatic note extending the thanks of the Polish government for the Coast Guard's assistance in this case. (Source: USCG Historian’s Office)

Since it opened in 2007, the new DCT Gdansk container terminal has had several opportunities to demonstrate its versatility, notably with the transhipment of motor vehicles from deepsea to feeder car carriers and even the handling of a cruise vessel. It has also handled several heavylift vessels including, of course, the vessels that delivered its ship-to-shore cranes and RTGs. More recently though, the terminal has handled a number of very heavy pieces destined for the adjacent Gdansk oil refinery, operated by Group Lotos, and further shipments are programmed for later in 2009.

The European Commission has concluded, following four years of investigation, that state aid granted to Gdynia shipyard and Szczecin shipyard gives rise to disproportionate distortions of competition within the Single Market, in breach of EC Treaty state aid rules, and must be repaid. The Commission has simultaneously agreed to accept commitments from Poland for the implementation of the decisions in a way that will quickly create opportunities for viable and sustainable economic activities at the Gdynia and Szczecin sites and so maximize the number of sustainable jobs there. In particular, the Polish authorities have committed to sell the yards' assets through open…