Poland to hold euro referendum

According to an AP report, Warsaw’s new president said "there definitely will be a referendum. Getting rid of one's own currency is a very serious limitation of one's own sovereignty."

He added that the poll would probably take place in the second half of his five-year term, stating "Our friends in Europe are not encouraging us to act hastily".

Mr Kaczynski’s Law and Justice party now holds both the presidency and the prime minister’s office of the country, after Mr Kaczynski’s twin brother Jaroslaw in September won the Polish general elections.

Law and Justice, which is moderately eurosceptic and distrusts free market economics, is currently engaged in coalition talks with the liberal and more pro-European Civic Platform.

The Civic Platform in its campaign had said it would like to move Poland’s zloty currency into ERM II - the waiting room for the euro - in April 2006, leading to potential euro entry by 2009.

But Mr Kaczynski’s comments have poured cold water on these plans.

Law and Justice’s freshly gained dominant position looks set to slow down Warsaw’s integration into the euro-zone, further distancing the country from more ambitious new member states such as the Baltic states and Slovenia which are expected to join the euro between 2007 and 2008.

Meanwhile, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic aim at entry in 2009-2010.