Summary

State Party Bulgaria ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 6 April 2011 and enacted implementing legislation in 2015. Bulgaria has attended every meeting of the convention, and voted in favor of the key annual United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2021.

Bulgaria has never used or produced cluster munitions, but it acquired them and once held a stockpile of 6,905 cluster munitions and 190,919 submunitions. Bulgaria destroyed 1,303 cluster munitions and 41,495 submunitions in February–May 2022, and has requested an extension to its October 2022 stockpile destruction deadline. Bulgaria is retaining six cluster munitions and 300 submunitions for research and training purposes.

Policy

The Republic of Bulgaria signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified it on 6 April 2011. The convention entered into force for the country on 1 October 2011.

Bulgaria has adopted specific legislation to guide its implementation of both the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Mine Ban Treaty, which took effect on 8 December 2015.[1] Bulgaria amended its Penal Code in June 2016 to provide sanctions for violations of the convention.[2] A National Authority established in January 2012 coordinates Bulgaria’s implementation of and compliance with the convention.[3]

Bulgaria submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 27 March 2012. Since then, it has provided annual updated reports, most recently on 29 April 2022.[4]

Bulgaria played a notable role in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and hosted a regional conference promoting the convention in Sofia in September 2008.

Bulgaria has participated in every meeting of the convention, including its Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021.[5] Bulgaria also attended the intersessional meetings in May 2022, where it provided an update on its progress on stockpile destruction.[6]

Bulgaria voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting implementation of the convention in December 2021.[7] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

As of May 2022, Bulgaria has not condemned the use of cluster munitions in Ukraine. Bulgaria has firmly condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria in the past, and has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at this use.[8] Bulgaria has also voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions condemning use of cluster munitions in Syria.[9]

Bulgaria is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Interpretive issues

In 2009, Bulgaria elaborated its views on several important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention.[10] Bulgaria interprets Article 1 of the convention to mean that “transit” of cluster munitions across the territory of States Parties is prohibited, as is the stockpiling of foreign-owned cluster munitions. Bulgaria has noted that while a ban on investment in cluster munition production is not explicit in the convention text, it would need to be “considered in light of the general prohibition on the development and production of cluster munitions.”

With respect to “interoperability” and the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party, Bulgaria has stated that it “will fully observe the regulations of Article 21 of the Convention…Par. 4 of Article 21 stipulates that participation in such military operations ‘shall not authorize a State Party’ to engage in acts prohibited under the terms of the Convention and contains an exhaustive list of such acts.”

Use, production, and transfer

In 2009, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative said that “cluster munitions have never been used by the Bulgarian Armed Forces.”[11] Bulgaria was among a handful of states to announce a unilateral moratorium on the use of cluster munitions prior to the creation of the convention.[12]

Bulgaria formally confirmed in 2012 that there “are no programmes for the conversion or decommissioning of production facilities for cluster munitions in the Republic of Bulgaria.”[13] Previously, in 2008, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated that “Bulgaria does not and has not produced any type of cluster munitions.”[14]

Bulgaria imported a stockpile of cluster munitions from the Soviet Union.

Stockpiling

Bulgaria possessed a stockpile of 6,905 cluster munitions and 190,919 submunitions at the time the convention entered into force for the country, as detailed in the following table:

Cluster munitions stockpiled by Bulgaria, as of October 2011[15]

Note: N/A=not applicable.

The number of cluster munitions reported to be stockpiled by Bulgaria has changed several times since 2012, when it first reported stockpiling 6,874 cluster munitions and 149,398 submunitions.[16] This increased in 2013 to 6,909 cluster munitions and 157,664 submunitions, after additional stocks were discovered.[17] An additional 15,497 submunitions were reported in 2014.[18] In 2018, Bulgaria reported that eight cluster munitions and 400 submunitions previously scheduled for destruction would be retained for research and training purposes.[19] Bulgaria’s April 2022 Article 7 transparency report corrected “a technical error” which saw 512 BKF AO-2.5 RTM submunitions previously mistakenly counted as BKF AO-2.5 RT submunitions.[20]

The cluster munitions have been decommissioned, separated from the operational stockpile, and are in the process of being destroyed.[21]

Stockpile destruction

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Bulgaria is required to destroy all its stockpiled cluster munitions as soon as possible, but not later than 1 October 2022.

Bulgaria submitted a third request in May 2022 to extend its stockpile destruction deadline, until 31 December 2023. This request will be considered at the convention’s Tenth Meeting of States Parties in September 2022.[22] The request states that the additional period is needed because an unplanned explosion at a stockpile destruction facility on 21 December 2020 put the project on hold for 13 months. In September 2019, Bulgaria had become the first State Party to be granted an extension to its stockpile destruction deadline, from 1 October 2019 to 1 October 2020.[23] A second extension, granted in February 2021, further extended the deadline to 1 October 2022.[24]

As of May 2022, Bulgaria had destroyed 3,329 cluster munitions and 83,899 submunitions. This represents 48% of its cluster munition stocks and 44% of its submunition stocks.

Previously, Bulgaria had destroyed 35 cluster munitions and 4,170 submunitions in 2019, and 1,991 cluster munitions and 38,234 submunitions in 2020.[25] After the December 2020 explosion at a stockpile destruction facility, no cluster munition stocks were destroyed during 2021. Yet the destruction process resumed in February 2022 and has been scaled up considerably, with 1,303 cluster munitions and 41,495 submunitions destroyed in February–May 2022.

All cluster munition stocks held by the Bulgarian Armed Forces are being destroyed by an Italian company, Esplodenti Sabino Srl., in Casalbordino, Italy.[26] Bulgaria amended legislation in 2019 to allow it to transport cluster munition stocks outside of Bulgarian territory for destruction. Previously, Bulgaria destroyed 1,991 cluster munitions and 38,234 submunitions during 2020.[27] It destroyed 35 cluster munitions and 4,170 submunitions in 2019.[28] It destroyed 35 cluster munitions in 2018.

The United States (US) government has provided US$3.8 million to the Bulgarian Armed Forces to destroy its cluster munition stockpile.[29]

Bulgaria’s 2022 Article 3 extension request warns that “growing uncertainties revolving around the duration and the developments of the war in Ukraine may affect and/or delay the implementation of the transportation and destruction activities.”[30]

Destruction of foreign stockpiles

Two states have transferred cluster munitions to Bulgaria for the purposes of stockpile destruction.

State Party Slovenia transferred 41,825 PAT-794 submunitions to Bulgaria in 2011.[31] In June 2018, Slovenia reported that the cluster munitions were “effectively and irreversibly destroyed” by contractor EXPAL Bulgaria.[32] Bulgaria’s 2018 Article 7 transparency report confirmed that “The Slovenian submunitions, declared in previous periods, have been destroyed.”[33]

Signatory Cyprus transferred 3,760 4.2-inch OF projectiles used for the GRM-20 mortar system, containing 2,559 M20G submunitions, to Bulgaria in 2014.[34] A total of 2,416 of the projectiles were destroyed by private company EXPAL Bulgaria at a facility in Bulgaria in 2018, while the remaining 1,344 4.2-inch OF projectiles were destroyed in August 2019.[35]

Retention

As of 31 December 2021, Bulgaria was retaining a total of six 9N123K cluster munitions and 300 9N24 submunitions for research and training purposes.[36] The Bulgarian Armed Forces consumed one cluster munition and 50 submunitions in training during June 2021.

Previously, in September 2018, Bulgaria had told States Parties that its “entire stock of cluster munitions” was “marked for destruction,” as it “has no intention to retain cluster munitions or explosive submunitions for training purposes, permitted under Article 3 of the Convention.”[37]

Policy

The Republic of Bulgaria signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 4 September 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. On 24 November 2015, Bulgaria adopted implementation legislation, which entered into force on 8 December 2015.[1] The legislation defines key terms and “regulates the conditions and procedures for transfer, transportation and destruction of APLMs and the control over these activities.” In June 2016, Bulgaria also amended its Penal Code to establish sanctions for violating the provisions of the implementation law.[2]

Bulgaria consistently submits annual Article 7 transparency reports. Bulgaria also regularly attends meetings of the treaty, including the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018 and the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. However, Bulgaria did not attend the intersessional meetings in May 2019.

Bulgaria served as co-rapporteur and then co-chair of the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction from 2008–2010. Additionally, Bulgaria served on the Committee on General Status and Operation of the Convention in 2012–2013.

Bulgaria is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.

Production, transfer, use, and stockpiling

Bulgaria ceased antipersonnel mine export in 1996 and production in 1998. Previously, Bulgarian mines were reported to have been used in Cambodia and other countries. In April 2002, Bulgaria reported that production facilities were permanently decommissioned.[3]

Bulgaria finished destruction of its stockpile of 885,872 antipersonnel mines in December 2000, well ahead of its treaty-mandated destruction deadline of 1 March 2003. Bulgaria initially retained 10,446 mines for training purposes, but this was reduced to 3,672 by 31 March 2010. In 2019, Bulgaria reported 3,318 mines as retained for training and research.[4] In its 2010 Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report, Bulgaria also reported possessing 171,050 antipersonnel mines transferred to Bulgaria by Greece for the purpose of destruction.[5] On 1 October 2014, an explosion at the Midzhur munitions destruction plant owned by VIDEX in Gorni Lom, Bulgaria killed 15 workers and halted Greece’s stockpile destruction program.[6] The Bulgarian President, Rosen Plevneliev, attributed the Midzhur plant blast to “arrogant non-observance” of rules of procedure.[7] In November 2018, Bulgaria announced that the remaining antipersonnel mines were transferred back to Greece.[8]

Bulgaria initially reported 72 minefields on its territory, which had been laid during the Cold War. Clearance of all antipersonnel mines in mined areas was completed by 31 October 1999, well in advance of its 1 March 2009 clearance deadline.