It will be hard for Poland to comply with Maastricht criteria, except the fiscal one, in the short-term, deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski said in Warsaw on Friday during a debate on the euro zone, also attended by EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn.

"I hope that [the European Commission] will lift the excessive deficit procedure from Poland already this year: Poland would hence comply with the fiscal criterion," Rostowski said. "Other criteria will be difficult to reach in the short term."

The exchange rate criterion should be targeted only when other criteria are met, according to the minister.

"Meeting the exchange rate criterion should be targeted once there is a big dose of certainty that all other criteria are met and Poland could enter the euro zone after two years of staying in the ERM2 mechanism," Rostowski said.

Poland should also set a number of internal criteria in order to ensure that the country is well prepared for euro zone entry, such as a more strict fiscal criteria or an internal criterion on unemployment, the minister said.