WARSAW, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - Poland's Treasury Minister Aleksander Grad on Wednesday called on European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes to order a fresh expert review of plans to restructure two troubled Polish shipyards.

'I've sent a letter to the European Commission today proposing to create a working group with the participation of Commission representatives and perhaps external experts who could study the (restructuring) program in an independent fashion,' Grad told reporters in Warsaw Wednesday.

Grad's comments came on the heels of unconfirmed Polish media reports Kroes will reject Poland's plans to save the heavily indebted Baltic Sea shipyards in Gdynia and Szczecin, a move that is expected to spell their bankruptcy.

On September 12 Poland inked deals with private investors aimed at saving the shipyards and forwarded the restructuring plans to the European Commission, meeting a crucial EU deadline.

Should the Commission fail to approve the restructuring plans, the yards -- under EU competition regulations -- will be required to repay 2.1 billion euros (three billion dollars) in public subsidies, a move that would all but certainly spell their bankruptcy.

The Commission has declined to approve a string of restructuring plans set forth by Warsaw in recent years, insisting they failed to meet competition rules.

Owned by the state, the communist-era shipyards in Gdynia and Szczecin are sinking in debt.

Ukraine's powerful Industrial Union of Donbass (ISD) has bid to acquire the Gdynia yard in order to merge it with the Gdansk shipyard it bought last year.

Mostostal Chojnice-Ulstein, a Polish-Norwegian consortium, is interested in the Szczecin yard.

But both investors want more public subsidies from the Polish government in order to push ahead with their privatisation and restructuring plans, risking rejection by the European Commission.

Poland joined the EU in 2004.