NBP President Adam Glapinski gave an interview to Gazeta Polska in which he once again mentions the risks of adopting the euro in Poland. 

"It has been said for some years that the task set by Brussels for Tusk is not only for him to overthrow the existing government in Poland, but also to put our country on course to join the eurozone," Glapinski said.

This is not the first time that the NBP president has made himself known as a declared opponent of the euro in Poland. Already in 2019, he stated that as long as he is the NBP president, the zloty will not be introduced into the ERM-2 corridor, which precedes the introduction of the euro. Let alone into the euroland. He repeated this at the beginning of July this year at a press conference following a meeting of the Monetary Policy Council.

The point is that, in order to adopt the euro, every country in the European Union has to fulfill, in accordance with the Maastricht Treaty, special economic conditions. These are the so-called convergence criteria. Therefore, apart from the political decision, which would have to be supported by more than one party (as an amendment to the Constitution is required, for which the support of at least two-thirds of MPs is needed) and the necessity for the NBP to support the accession (which is not likely to happen until at least 2028), the Polish economy would still have to fulfill the Maastricht criteria. 

The conditions specified by the treaty are the maintenance of sufficiently low inflation, the level of long-term interest rates, a fiscal deficit of no more than 3 percent of GDP, and public debt of less than 60 percent of GDP. In addition, a country wishing to adopt the euro must prove for at least two years that its currency is stable against the euro.

The latest convergence report of the European Central Bank leaves no doubt. Poland fulfills only one of these four criteria. 

(300gospodarka)