The decision underlines the new sense of continuity in Polish politics following elections on Oct. 9 as the country now faces the challenge of maintaining economic growth with Europe gripped by crisis.

Poland’s economy is growing at a strong 4 percent this year, but deficits have been accumulating in recent years.

The European Union warned Poland Thursday that it could now face sanctions if it doesn’t control state spending, part of a measure to try to keep the debt crisis in Europe from spiraling out of control.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s center-right Civic Platform party won the most votes in last month’s election, marking the first time in Poland’s post-communist history that a party has won two consecutive terms.

Still, Tusk’s party was left without a sufficient majority in parliament, leading it to form another coalition with its junior partner of the past four years, the agrarian Polish People’s Party.

That party’s leader, Waldemar Pawlak, said after a meeting with Tusk that his party will keep the ministries it has controlled until now. Those are the economy ministry, which Pawlak himself heads, as well as the agriculture and labor ministries.

Tusk vowed earlier this week to form a government quickly in order to promote stability as Europe struggles with a debt crisis within the eurozone. Poland does not belong to the euro zone but is holding the rotating EU presidency and wants to promote an image of stability.

The new government is now to face a confidence vote in parliament on Nov. 18. It is expected to pass easily because the two parties together control a five-seat majority in the 460-seat lower house.

With uncertainty about how the eurozone troubles will affect Poland, Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski said his ministry is preparing three variants of the 2012 budget.

One assumes growth of 3.2 percent, another of 2.5 percent and third economic shrinking of 1 percent. The aim is to get the deficit down to below 3 percent of GDP in 2012, Rostowski said on Wednesday.

Poland got a warning Thursday from EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn that it could risk sanctions under EU spending rules if it doesn’t implement additional measures to get its budget under control.

Belgium, Cyprus, Malta and Hungary got the same warning.

Under the new rules, set to come into force in mid-December, sanctions for countries that break the caps on budget deficits and debt levels become more automatic, in an effort to prevent a worsening of the European debt crisis.