Reforms can protect Poland from debt crisis: president

(WARSAW) - Poland's president on Tuesday urged the country's new parliament to take brave and swift action in tackling reforms to protect the economy from the fallout of the eurozone debt crisis.

Having chalked up 1.7 percent growth in 2009, non-eurozone Poland was the only state in the 27-member EU not to have fallen into recession during the global crisis.

Speaking at the first session of parliament since October 9 elections, President Bronislaw Komorowski insisted reforms in the legislative, justice and health sectors were crucial to the country's future.

"The new parliament will be faced with making decisions in difficult times for Europe and the world," he said, adding "brave and swift action" was needed to protect "Poland's economic growth from the crisis."

He also insisted that while the debt crisis has "laid bare the structural deficiencies of the eurozone," the answer should be found in "increased and improved cooperation," rather than moving away from the EU.

Komorowski pin-pointed excessive indebtedness, "low economic competitiveness and excessively risky financial investment activities" as the prime reasons behind the crisis.

The Polish president also insisted that despite the eurozone's woes, "achieving readiness for eurozone entry ... is the road towards Poland's further development."

Under its 2004 EU entry agreement Poland is obliged to join the eurozone but is not bound by any deadline to do so. Demanding a lasting solution to the debt crisis, Polish leaders have said the country will meet membership criteria by 2015.

"The process of preparing for monetary union will be a significant motor for the further modernisation of our country and increasing our competitiveness," Komorowski said.

Poland's economy is expected to grow 3.8 percent this year compared to the 1.6 percent average for the mostly richer 17-member eurozone, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates.

Former communist state Poland current holds the EU six-month rotating presidency until the end of this year.