Kosovo Court Gives Green Light to Creating Regular Army

Kosovo's Constitutional Court ruled in favor of the government's request to transform the country's Security Forces into an army.

Under the new constitutional amendments, the Kosovo Armed Forces will be mandated to "protect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, the people, property and the interests of the Republic of Kosovo and contribute to establishing and protecting regional and global peace and stability", BalkanInsight revealed.

Together with this change, the Ministry of Security Forces will be transformed into a Ministry of Defence.

The Kosovo Army should be complete by 2019, and would have 5,000 acting soldiers and 3,000 reservists, which is more than double the current lightly armed Security Forces.

It is expected that Serbia will request the Kosovo Army not to have the right to enter into the predominantly ethnic-Serb northern part of the country.