Ukraine crisis should 'nudge' Poland towards euro: minister

(WARSAW) - Poland's foreign minister on Thursday said the Ukrainian crisis could lead Warsaw to speed up the country's adoption of the euro as a way to boost its security through deeper EU integration.

"The eventual decision to adopt the single currency will not only have a financial and economic dimension but above all a political one, notably regarding our security," Radoslaw Sikorski told parliament.

"The developments in Ukraine should nudge us towards faster integration into the eurozone," he said as tensions with Russia have flared over the violence and political turmoil in Ukraine.

Last year Poland's finance minister said 10 years was a realistic timeline for joining the eurozone, while the prime minister said the process could remain on hold until at least 2019 because of a parliamentary impasse.

The ex-communist nation of 38 million people, which borders Ukraine and is central Europe's largest economy, is obliged to join the 18-member single currency bloc under the terms of its European Union entry but there is no deadline for accession.

Warsaw expects to meet all the eurozone entry targets by 2015 but has been coy about pegging a target entry date given the euro area's debt crisis.

"In the eurozone, the 'one for all, all for one' rule is strictly followed since serious threats to one country automatically spell disturbances in all the others," Sikorski said.

"Given today's complicated international scene, it is in our interest to develop this kind of interdependence between Poland and the rest of the European countries."

Poland's centrist government currently lacks the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to push through necessary constitutional changes to drop its zloty currency.