Members of parliament's Defense Committee approved amendments to the Law on State Reserves and Wartime Stocks on first reading. Eleven lawmakers voted "in favor." The bill was submitted by the Council of Ministers on July 16, 2026, and aims to make the storage and management of strategic reserves more efficient.
Rumen Mladenov, deputy chairman of the State Agency for State Reserve and Wartime Stocks, explained that the amendments address three main issues.
The first is a new legal mechanism through which legal entities will be able to use the agency's Central Technical Base. Access is envisioned for companies that have been assigned wartime tasks and already hold permits for the relevant products and documentation for their storage.
The second stems from guidance issued by the Chief Inspectorate of the Council of Ministers. It removes some of the functions currently assigned to the agency's inspectors so that they fully comply with the requirements of the Law on Administration, Mladenov added.
The bill also refines Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the Law on State Reserves, which defines exactly what is stored. According to Mladenov, the amendment lists the main categories of materials set aside for reserves. These include:
- food;
- fuel;
- medicines;
- basic raw materials and supplies.
The exact type and quantity of goods and materials in the state reserve are determined by a nomenclature list adopted through an act of the Council of Ministers.
Changes are also proposed to the definitions of medical reserves. The current wording contains terms that no longer align with the current text of the Law on Medicinal Products in Human Medicine, the Law on Medical Devices, and the Law on Veterinary Medical Activity. The goal is to bring the various laws into sync with one another.
Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said the Defense Ministry has already issued its opinion on the matter several times, most recently in June. The ministry fully supports the amendments to the Law on State Reserves and Wartime Stocks, he stressed.
Parliament's Economic Committee had already approved the same amendments on first reading in early September.