Polish Businesses, Citizens Support Plan To Shift To Euro By 2011

Warsaw, Poland (AHN) - Polish businesses and nationals are supporting Poland's plan to shift to the euro currency by 2011, but the country's central bank head, Slawomir Skrzypek, doubts Warsaw's chance of meeting the European Union requirements in just over two years.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the setting of 2011 as the country's target date to ditch the zloty in favor of the euro. But he admitted it was a "difficult but possible" target.

To move closer to that target, Tusk promised to come out with a budget that would work on reducing the country's deficit, one of the requirements for the currency shift. To support the prime minister's plan, Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski said he will work on a detailed timetable.

According to a survey by the Polish daily Dziennik, 55 percent of Poles support the shift to the euro by 2011. One of the reasons cited by the Polish Sports Minister was it will facilitate the co-hosting of Poland of the Euro 2012 football championship games.

Rostowski said Poland targets a zero budget deficit by 2009. Former Deputy Finance Minister Stanislaw Gomulka views the triple goals of keeping with EU standards on inflation, achieving a zero budget deficit and trimming national debt by 2011 ambitious and unrealistic.

When Poland joined the EU in 2004, it agreed to adopt the euro, but it did not set a timetable to become a part of the 15-nation euro zone. Eight other former communist nations, except for Slovakia which plans to shift to the euro by Jan. 1, 2009, did not set deadlines when to shift currency. Early this year, Cyprus and Malta changed their currencies to the euro.