In this two-part article the National Bank of Poland's monetary policy is described and analyzed from the perspective of Poland's undertakings to join the European Union and, over time, to adopt the single monetary policy and the euro. In the first part of the paper we focus on monetary policy problems before Poland's accession to the EU on 1 May 2004. The main message can be summarized as follows: given the above all legal nature of the EU accession process, its impact on Polish monetary policy was more visible on the institutional side than on the design and conduct of policies.