A long wait for eurozone entry

Former Finance Ministers and economy experts invited by Bronisław Geremek, an MEP, discussed the prospects of euro adoption in Poland during a conference last week.

According to Geremek, the future of the EU depends on the role the euro group will play in it. Countries that already enjoy tight economic ties create such a group. The place of Poland in the EU is not clear as neither EU officials nor the Polish government have set a deadline for euro adoption. "No calendar presenting the obligations of the Polish government in terms of euro adoption have been created," he added.

Experts said that even though the government noticed the need to adopt the common currency, in the public sphere the topic is not being raised. A recent report investigating how ready countries are for the currency shows that Poland is one of the least or even the least-prepared new member of the EU to fulfill the euro requirements.

Jakub Borowski from the National Bank of Poland (NBP) says Poland has fulfilled the Maastricht criterion of interest rates since August 2005, and the inflation criterion since November 2005 but hasn't taken advantage of the low inflation rate and tightened its macroeconomic policy. The currency-rate criterion has not been met either, and Poland hasn't joined the ERM II.

Experts say that despite the fact that euro adoption may bring GDP growth of between 0.2 and even two percent, the government is not hurrying to set a date. According to Mirosław Gronicki, a  former Finance Minister, if there is political will and Poland has a positive referendum in 2009, the euro will be adopted in 2012 at the earliest.