Kosovo Security Force

Kosovo's Defence Ministry will have six million more euros to spend in the 2019 budget than it had last year - after the country's parliament voted to expand the competences of the current lightly armed Kosovo Security Force, KSF, and start its transformation into a regular army.

The budget planned for defence in 2019 is 58.7 million euros; the previous year it was 52.3 million.

Brnabic said that forming an army was contrary to UN Security Council Resolution 1244, the Brussels agreement, and the Kosovo Constitution itself, and that NATO has "clearly and unequivocally" stated that it was opposed the formation of an armed force in such a way - and added that Serbia would not allow things "to be done that way."

However, the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) can't, he said, according to Politika.

In an interview with the newspaper, Grasso said that "the special operations unit, which can be armed with long rifles" belongs to the Kosovo police and as such has the mandate to enforce the law throughout Kosovo "without the obligation to seek approval."

Stoltenberg announced that as Kosovo Security Force (KSF) "evolves," NATO will "reexamine its level of engagement with the KSF in the new year."

He said this during a phone conversation on Wednesday with the prime minister of the provisional Pristina institutions, Ramush Haradinaj.

"The Kosovo Assembly adopted today a legislation on the Kosovo Security Force (KSF)," the EU said in a statement. "Like NATO, the EU continues to share the view that the mandate of the KSF should only be changed through an inclusive and gradual process in accordance with Kosovo Constitution."

According to all international documents, and especially UN Security Council 1244, the only armed force that can enter northern Kosovo, mostly inhabited by Serbs, is KFOR, the Serb List leader told a news conference after the Kosovo Assembly adopted laws allowing for the transformation of the Kosovo Security Forces (KSF) into an armed force.

Kosovo's parliament on Friday on a second reading approved three draft laws on the Kosovo Security Force, KSF, expanding its competences and creating a legal base for its transformation into a regular army.

The three draft laws concern one directly on the Kosovo Security Force, KSF, another on a Ministry of Defence and a third on service in the KSF.

Vucic travels to the Ground Security Zone. Covic: KFOR should be afraid.

All media in Belgrade, but also in Pristina, marked today as "D-Day" for the formation an army in Kosovo. Kosovo President Hashim Thaci is already in uniform.

According to the broadcaster, "it is expected that they will be put at the disposal of the (future) Kosovo army."

The report recalled that the Kosovo government in July signed a contract to buy 51 such vehicles.

The handover ceremony at a Kosovo Security Forces (KSF) barrack was attended by high ranking local officials and those from the US embassy.

Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj told the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, on Thursday by telephone that Kosovo was committed to transforming the Kosovo Security Force, KSF into an army, one day after NATO urged it not to.