PM: Poland Needs 'Stronger Eurozone' to Join Single Currency

Central European heavyweight Poland needs a stronger eurozone and stability for its own economy to join the single European currency, the country's prime minister-designate said on Wednesday.

"A stronger eurozone and stable Polish economy are the pre-conditions for entry into the eurozone," Ewa Kopacz told parliament ahead of a confidence vote that her new cabinet is expected to win later in the day.

Warsaw has so far refused to give a target date for eurozone entry.

It meets most of the Maastricht Treaty economic targets for entry, but must still bring its budget deficit under 3.0 percent of GDP.

Unwilling to jeopardize steady economic expansion, officials in Warsaw adopted a wait-and-see approach on the bloc's efforts to resolve its debt crisis.

Last year senior officials said entry within a decade was realistic, but the crisis in neighboring Ukraine has since prompted some to consider more speedy eurozone entry as an added security measure alongside its EU and NATO membership.

The ex-communist nation of 38 million people, which borders Ukraine and is central Europe's largest economy, is obliged to join the single currency bloc under the terms of its European Union entry but there is no deadline for accession.

Poland expects to meet all eurozone entry targets by 2015, but will also need to muster a two-thirds parliamentary majority to push through necessary constitutional changes to drop its zloty currency.