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The euro zone is still not safe for Poland to join despite this week's agreement on measures to halt its sovereign debt crisis, Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski said on Friday, adding it would be several years before Warsaw sets a new date for membership.

The global financial crisis that began in 2008 derailed Poland's original drive to adopt the euro in 2012, although Warsaw says adopting the common currency remains a strategic goal that will bind it closer to wealthier western Europe.

“I think the euro zone is still struggling with very deeply-rooted structural problems,” Rostowski told Polish radio, giving as an example the fact that the European Central Bank has only a limited mandate to give ad-hoc help to ailing euro states.

“And at this point I don't see it changing quickly,” he added. “Some stabilisation and rescue mechanisms are put in place now, but the process of change will take several years before we would know the euro zone is well-constructed and safe to join.”

Euro zone leaders agreed on Thursday to leverage the 17-country currency bloc's rescue fund to increase its firepower, cut Greek debt levels, recapitalise banks, and increase economic coordination in a bid to contain the two-year-old debt crisis.

Poland's pro-European government, led by the centre-right Civic Platform (PO) party which won four more years in power in an Oct. 9 election, does not have a specific target date for euro membership.

“The decision on when to join (we can expect) in several years, and the entry itself - later on,” Rostowski said.

Warsaw would need to change Poland's constitution in order to adopt the euro, a move that would require the support of at least several lawmakers of the main opposition party, the conservative-nationalist and eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS).

PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Thursday that entering the euro zone now would be “suicidal”. He argues that Poland should not consider joining for at least a decade as it needs first to catch up with its more developed Western peers.

Unlike older members states such as Britain and Denmark, the mostly ex-communist countries that have joined the European Union since 2004 are legally required to adopt the euro, although the timing of their entry has been left open. - Reuters