Poland will stick to its word and adopt euro - finance minister

Poland will stick to its word and adopt euro - finance minister

Poland will not back out of its obligation to adopt the euro, despite being the only EU newcomer which has not set a date for joining the eurozone, Finance Minister Zyta Gilowska said

"We have committed ourselves to adopting the single currency, but for the moment we are not saying when that can happen. However, attempts to back out of this obligation are out of the question," Gilowska told the Rzeczpospolita daily in an interview

Gilowska said that if Poland decided not to join the single currency, "our reputation internationally would suffer"

He said: "It would also be very expensive. The European Commission could seriously limit our access to structural funds." Poland's conservative President Lech Kaczynski said last week he believed that Poland should put off joining the euro as long as possible because he was concerned that membership would lower Poles' standard of living

"The effects of introducing the euro even in powerful countries like Italy were unfavourable. Prices rose and caused a fall in living standards," Kaczynski told Agence France Press

Meanwhile, Gilowska said Poland would launch a major reform of public finances before the end of June

The aim would be to reform institutions that control public finances in order to control money flow more effectively and in a more modern way, she told Rzeczpospolita

The changes would allow "planning the budget over many years, especially concerning investment," and improved management of European Union funds, which currently are distributed under a system of "happy improvisation"