How long it will take the euro currency to follow suit is the subject of some debate Few people are better placed than Marek Belka to assess Poland's prospects for joining the eurozone. Twice the country's minister of finance, the prime minister in 2004-05, the head of the European department of the International Monetary Fund from 2008 to 2010, and since June 2010 the president of the National Bank of Poland (NBP), he can see the question from both political and economic angles. He also sees the topic from the international as well as the Polish perspective.
"Eurozone entry is our strategic objective, but it is obvious that we are now further away from entering the eurozone than it looked three years ago. We still have a lot of homework to do meeting the Maastricht criteria, but also the situation in the eurozone is not clear, so we have to wait until the institutional infrastructure has been built up in the eurozone, and the crisis cases are dealt with," says Mr Belka.
