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Poland is in no hurry to join the Eurozone, with the government arguing that the country’s strong economic performance shows it is better served by retaining the zloty for now.
Finance minister Andrzej Domański told the FT that the case for adopting the euro had weakened as Poland has outpaced most Eurozone economies, even as EU member states are obliged to join the single currency area when certain criteria are met.
“Our economy is now doing clearly better than most of those that have the euro,” Domański said in an interview. “We have more and more data, research and arguments to keep the Polish zloty.”
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has made a U-turn on the euro since first taking office in 2008, when he had called for Poland to adopt the single currency in 2012. That target was abandoned following the euro debt crisis and amid opposition from the rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which made retaining the zloty a central element of its defence of national sovereignty.
Since Tusk won parliamentary elections in October 2023 at the helm of a pro-EU coalition, the zloty has gained against the euro and opinion polls have consistently shown a majority of voters opposed to the euro.
“Public opinion favours the zloty, but the main reasons we’re not working on euro adoption right now are economic and not about Polish politics,” Domański said. “Two years ago I was a bit worried that Poland could be left behind in a two-tier EU and outside the Eurozone, but today Poland is clearly in the top economic tier, and I see no strong reason to abandon our own currency.”
Under EU accession rules, countries that have not yet adopted the euro are legally obliged to do so once they meet convergence criteria aimed at ensuring fiscal stability. Domański said, however, that any move to apply would ultimately be a political decision, leaving the timing firmly in Warsaw’s hands.
Bulgaria, which joined the EU three years after Poland in 2007, became the Eurozone’s 21st member this month.
But instead of joining the single currency, Domański said Warsaw is seeking a seat at the G20, a forum of the world’s largest economies. Poland has been invited by US President Donald Trump’s administration to attend this year’s G20 meeting in Miami as an observer.
Poland became a $1tn economy last year to rank as the world’s 20th largest, according to the latest IMF calculations. The OECD forecasts that Poland will grow 3.4 per cent this year, the fastest pace among EU countries covered in its December report.
The European Commission forecasts that Poland’s budget deficit will narrow to 6.3 per cent of GDP in 2026, from about 6.8 per cent last year, though it would still be more than double the Maastricht convergence threshold of 3 per cent — one of the fiscal criteria EU countries must meet to qualify for euro membership.
While final 2025 figures have not yet been released, Domański said public finances had recently improved thanks also to a strong labour market that has yielded one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU. “The wages are growing so that people are paying more in [tax] contribution,” he said.
Relations between Poland’s government and the central bank have stabilised, Domański said, signalling an easing of tensions after Tusk threatened in 2023 to bring the bank’s governor before a state tribunal.
Tusk had accused Adam Glapiński, a PiS ally, of mismanaging the National Bank of Poland and politicising monetary policy. Glapiński has denied wrongdoing and appealed to the ECB over what he called an unlawful attempt to curtail his second term, which runs until 2028.
Domański said there was now “less tension”, adding that he had met Glapiński twice in the past two years. “As finance minister, I treat the independence of the central bank very, very seriously,” he said.
But relations between the government and President Karol Nawrocki, another PiS nominee, are far more strained. Since taking office last summer, Nawrocki has vetoed several government bills, including legislation drafted by Domański to raise sugar and alcohol taxes, and this month Nawrocki referred the government’s 2026 budget to the constitutional court, citing concerns over the deficit and public debt.
Domański accused Nawrocki of undermining Poland’s credit rating, after agencies recently flagged institutional tensions as a constraint on fiscal consolidation.
“The president is trying to destabilise our efforts to improve public finances,” he said. “Rating agencies are paying attention to this, and it could affect their decisions . . . it’s a danger for Poland.”
Data visualisation by Keith Fray
This article has been amended to remove a reference to Poland’s debt falling in relation to GDP
