Poland Not Ready to Adopt Euro After 20 Years of EU Membership
Poland's economy is not ready to join the eurozone, Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski has said. He stressed that he agrees with the President of the National Bank of Poland Adam Glapinski on this issue, TVN24 reports.
Domanski noted that Poland's accession to the eurozone, the monetary union of 20 EU members, is not justified at this point, as the presence of its own currency, the zloty, helped Poland avoid recession during the global financial crisis and survive other shocks.
"When things go wrong in the global economy, the zloty loses value, which makes Polish exports grow rapidly. Thanks to this, among other things, we avoided a recession during the great financial crisis, so the zloty plays a very important role in the Polish economy, and at the moment there is no discussion about adopting the euro. I'm generally a supporter of the zloty," the minister said.
Tomorrow, on Wednesday, Poland and nine other countries will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their accession to the EU on 1 May 2004.
As part of its membership, Poland pledged to replace the zloty with the single European currency.
According to recent polls, the vast majority of Poles do not want their country to join the eurozone.
Only seven EU countries have so far retained their national currencies: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden.