Belka: Euro adoption is political

"The euro adoption is a political decision, made by political leaders and not by economists, possibly as the effect of unexpected events or a crisis," head of the National Bank of Poland Marek Belka said during a meeting organized by the Bruegel think-tank in Brussels. "Economic factors play an important, but secondary role," he added. According to Belka, the decision whether to enter the euro zone should take into account not only the state and structure of the Polish economy, but more importantly, the euro zone itself. "We are far from ideal. However, the real problem is the situation in the euro zone itself," he said. Despite undertaken reforms, the problems of the monetary union remain unresolved. Belka admitted that Polish lenders are eager to join the banking union, because they expect that the Frankfurt-based watchdog would be less strict than the Polish one. "This is why we do not want to join the banking union," Belka concluded.