Three-quarters of Poles oppose joining eurozone

(WARSAW) - Nearly three-quarters of Poles oppose their country's drive to adopt the euro as the single currency zone struggles to survive a debt crisis, a fresh survey released Thursday said.

Seventy-four percent of those polled said they opposed any moves to join the debt-laden eurozone, and of these 44 percent voiced "firm" opposition.

Only 22 percent of respondents supported accession to the bloc, while four percent said they had no opinion, according to a telephone survey conducted on November 30 by the Millward Brown SMG/KRC pollsters on a random representative sample of 1,001 Poles.

An ex-communist member of the European Union since 2004, like other newcomers to the bloc, Poland vowed to adopt the single currency as part of its entry treaty.

While Warsaw is under no fixed deadline for euro entry, it has said it will meet all the required Maastricht Treaty macro-economic criteria by 2015.

With Poland holding the EU's six-month rotating presidency until the year's end, Polish leaders have actively urged eurozone leaders, especially in Germany, to act swiftly to save the embattled currency union.

Speaking Monday in Berlin, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski warned of "apocalyptic consequences" should the eurozone crumble.

The country of 38 million is the only member of the 27-state EU which maintained economic growth through the last global recession. It is forecast to grow by 4.0 percent this year.