Poland wary of Euro adoption

(25/05/09)

Polish President Lech Kaczynski has questioned the government's handling of the economic crisis and warned against adoption of the euro in a recent speech to parliament.

Poland's economic growth will slow or stop entirely, while the effects of the global economic crisis could be "very serious," Kaczynski said, in the first presidential speech of its kind for over a decade.

But "the people and institutions responsible for Poland's economic growth did not appreciate the seriousness of the situation," Kaczynski said in a strike against political rival Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

"The time has come to ask fundamental questions on the economy and what the government intends to do to fill the growing budget deficit", Kaczynski said.

But it would be "risky" to switch to the euro currency during a financial crisis, Kaczynski said referring to Tusk's plans on entering ERM-2, the preparatory stage to switching to the European single currency.