Brussels, 22/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission decided this week that a change of the Business Plan of Mittal Steel Poland, Poland's biggest steel producer, is compatible with the Accession Treaty (Protocol No. 8). The company was restructured with the help of a significant amount of state aid granted between 1997 and 2003. After the company was privatised in 2004, it proposed to revise its investment programme to which it had committed itself until 2006. The change was notified to the Commission together with an undertaking that no capacity increase would take place. The Commission verified that the change would not result in an increase of state aid or capacity and was industrially sensible and so has approved the revised business plan. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes commented: “I am satisfied that Poland is taking its commitments in the steel sector seriously. It also shows that our monitoring efforts are paying off.“ Poland notified a revised business plan for Mittal Steel Poland to the Commission in April 2005. It planned to modify all four strategic investments envisaged in its original business plan, but not to grant any additional state aid. The biggest investment involves replacing an old hot rolling mill with a new mill, instead of merely modernising it. As this could have implied an increase of production capacity, Poland provided an undertaking that the old mill would be closed as soon as the new one is operational. The Commission agreed to the proposal under point 10 of Protocol No 8 to the Treaty of Accession. This is the second time the Commission has taken a decision accepting a modification of the ongoing steel restructuring in new Member States. The first decision concerned Czech steel producer Válcovny Plechu Frýdek-Místek. On the basis of a national restructuring plan, Protocol No 8 allows Poland to grant aid to eight companies from 1997 to 2003 up to a maximum of about € 850 million (about € 750 million was granted to Mittal Steel Poland). In exchange, Poland committed to reduce production capacity by more than 1 million tonnes.