Poland Will not Yet Adopt the Euro, Finance Minister Says

The finance minister of Poland has stated that the country will not be adopting the euro at this time. On May 1, Poland, along with 9 other countries, will celebrate the 20th anniversary of joining the EU.

Twenty years after joining the European Union, Poland is still not ready to adopt the euro currency, the finance minister in the pro-European Union government said.

Andrzej Domański, finance minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, said in an interview on TVN24 on Monday that Poland joining the eurozone, the currency union of 20 EU members, is not justified at this time.

He said he believed that having its own currency, the zloty, helped Poland avoid recession during the global financial crisis and to weather other shocks.

Twenty years after joining the European Union, Poland is still not ready to adopt the euro currency, the finance minister in the pro-European Union government said.

He said he believed that having its own currency, the zloty, helped Poland avoid recession during the global financial crisis and to weather other shocks.

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On Wednesday, Poland and nine other countries will mark the 20th anniversary of joining the EU, on May 1, 2004. Under the terms of membership, Poland committed itself to replacing the zloty with the single European currency.

The economic arguments for Poland to adopt the euro are strong. The country exports the equivalent of 63% of its GDP, and 75% of its trade is with the European Union.

Exporters have benefitted from the 9.5% fall in the zloty against the euro since Warsaw joined the Union in 2004. But the volatility of the national currency has been a problem.

In the past two decades, its value against the euro has been as much as 26% lower and up to 12% higher than its current level. These fluctuations create uncertainty and raise transaction costs for businesses.