Poland eyes more cooperation with Germany in space, Polish minister says

WARSAW, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Poland sees a lot of room to deepen cooperation with Germany in the space sector, Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski said on Monday, underscoring the need to possess sovereign technology in order to bolster security in the face of external pressures.

• "We need to invest in technologies ... that are not available right now in Europe, but are absolutely critical for our joint security," Domanski said, naming the space industry, during a joint panel with Germany's Economy Minister Katherina Reiche.

• "Together with our German partners I see lots of room for cooperation, thanks to which we'll be more resilient from some external pressure that can appear one day," he said, answering a question on how Poland and Germany could respond to competition from China and the U.S. in global trade.

• Domanski said security started in space and questioned how countries could defend themselves not having their own satellites, without which they were "blind".

• Domanski also said that Poland had decided to double its investment in the space sector.

• "We believe it's not only a very efficient way of spending money – from each euro invested you get 6-7 euros back, but that's also about our security and resilience. And we see room for further cooperation with German counterparts," Domanski said.

(Reporting by Karol Badohal, Editing by William Maclean)