Polish Business Divided On Joining The Euro

Two decades after Poland became a member of the European Union and committed to joining the eurozone, its business community remains divided over whether and when to adopt the single currency.

Less than half (48%) of heads of medium-sized and large privately held businesses in Poland favor joining the euro, while 42% oppose the move and 10% are undecided, according to a recent report by Grant Thornton Poland.

Support for the euro among the respondents slipped from 54% last year, but it’s higher than in the previous three years when the percentage hovered around 40%.

Attitudes toward adopting the single currency are most favorable among the heads of medium-sized enterprises employing 250 to 499 people, with 51% of them supporting the switch.

Among large companies with over 500 employees, support decreased from 59% in 2023 to 33% this year.

The authors of the report noted that at the beginning of the past decade, during the European debt crisis, and in 2019, when the European currency emerged from the downturn, over 85% of surveyed medium-sized and large companies favored joining the euro.

Against this backdrop, the current levels of support seem low, yet they remain stable. The business community has split into two camps of similar sizes, with relatively small shifts between them.

Kamil Sobolewski, the chief economist at Employers of Poland, the largest organization representing the interests of Polish employers, says he believes entrepreneurs’ views “to some extent reflect social divisions” and they are “partly a result of recent crises and geopolitical tensions, as well as a critical assessment of certain EU regulations.”

A poll conducted in May by the state research agency CBOS found that 49% of Poles believe the country should never adopt the single currency. Among the 45% of respondents who favor the switch, 13% think it should take place within the next three years, 22% within a decade, and 10% at a later stage.

In April, Poland’s Finance Minister Andrzej Domański said joining the eurozone was “not justified at this time” and that his ministry was not working toward the milestone. He claimed that having its own currency, the złoty, had “played an important role in mitigating economic shocks,” including helping Poland avoid a recession during the global financial crisis.

Sobolewski says it would be good to “outline a roadmap” for Poland’s entry into the eurozone, but he agrees with Minister Domański that any conversation about adopting the single currency would be theoretical for now. “We don’t meet the criteria for inflation, interest rates, deficit, or exchange rate stability,” he adds.