Bulgaria’s annual weapon export totalled 120 million euro, Economy and Energy Ministry representatives said.
On September 13 the Cabinet accepted a draft law for the control of weapon and defence technology export, Novinar newspaper reported.
The law would introduce a facilitated regime for the export of weapons to countries from the EU, as well as for Canada, the US, Switzerland and Japan, Novinar reported.
More than 60 Bulgarian companies had licenses permitting the trade with weapons. The law changes were going to facilitate the activities of these companies, Economy and Energy Ministry representatives said.
Bulgaria’s weapon import was smaller than the export and totalled 90 million leva annually. The export of Bulgarian weapons to the EU and US had increased, Novinar reported. Deputy Economy Minister Kornelia Ninova said the process was going to be facilitated further through the new law which would harmonise Bulgarian legislation with European.
New regulations were going to be enforced on January 1 2007. Previous regulations were accepted in 1995 and were amended several times, Novinar reported.
