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

WARSAW, Poland — Twenty years after joining the European Union, Poland is still not ready to adopt the euro, the pro-European Union government’s finance minister said.

Andrzej Domański, Minister of Finance in Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s office, said in an interview with TVN24 on Monday that Poland’s membership in the Eurozone, the EU’s 20-member monetary union, is not justified for the moment.

He said he believed having its own currency, the zloty, had helped Poland avoid recession during the global financial crisis and resist other shocks.

On Wednesday, Poland and nine other countries will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their accession to the EU, on May 1, 2004. Under the terms of its accession, Poland committed to replacing the zloty with the single European currency.