Poland interested in unused EU SAFE defence funds, deputy minister says

WARSAW, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Poland is interested in additional money from the European Union defence financing programme (SAFE) that would not be used by other countries, Deputy Minister of National Defence Pawel Zalewski said on Tuesday.

• Poland has signed a loan agreement under the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative, securing €43.7 billion to strengthen its military as the bloc steps up efforts to boost security amid heightened geopolitical risks.

• Zalewski said there is a wider pool of funds that have not been used and Poland is interested in them.

• "There will be a playoff in the negotiations with the European Commission. We will present our projects that we would like to include in this mechanism," Zalewski said in an interview on Polish Radio.

• He said that any additional funds obtained could be used by Poland to purchase military transport planes or aerial refuelling planes.

(Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)