Poland is still not ready to adopt the euro, its finance minister says

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 has 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.

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. [AP]