Poland may delay 2012 target for euro adoption

(WARSAW) - Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk may delay the 2012 target set by his liberal government for a currency switch to the euro to avoid a referendum on the matter demanded by the opposition, Polish media said Friday.

The reports come a day after Tusk met with European Central Bank (ECB) President Jean-Claude Trichet in Frankfurt.

Quoting an anonymous source close to the prime minister, Poland's leading daily, the Gazeta Wyborcza broadsheet, reported the ECB would rather Poland make the necessary constitutional amendment for euro adoption prior to entering the exchange-rate mechanism known as ERM-2 that Warsaw wants to happen in 2009.

Before fully joining the eurozone, Poland as a candidate must spend at least two years in ERM-2 to test the stability of its currency, the zloty.

Poland's constitution must be amended to allow eurozone entry. Any amendment, however, requires support in parliament from the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party to muster the needed two-thirds parliamentary majority.

Led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the identical twin of conservative President Lech Kaczynski, the PiS has made Poland's euro adoption -- and therefore its support for a constitutional amendment to this effect -- conditional on its approval in a public referendum.

"According to our information, Donald Tusk has arrived at the conclusion that a referendum would be too risky," Poland's Dziennik daily reported Friday, stressing the fact that 50 percent voter turnout is required for the referendum to be valid.

Poland committed itself to adopting the euro as part of its 2004 EU accession agreement but no date was set for the switch.

On January 1, 2009, Slovakia will become the second post-communist country after Slovenia to enter the current 15-state eurozone.