EULEX Kosovo deploys additional reserve police force to Kosovo

The reserve formed police unit deployed to Kosovo is made up of gendarmes from the Italian Carabinieri and members of the European Gendarmerie Force (EUROGENDFOR), EULEX Kosovo said in a statement.

The unit will support the EULEX mission in meeting its tasks, including as Kosovo’s second security responder if necessary, EULEX Kosovo said. The reserve police officers are based at EULEX’s Support Compound in Fushe Kosove and will be under the command of EULEX.

Tensions are currently running high in the northern part of Kosovo after a new directive for vehicle owners to replace Serbian licence plates with Kosovar ones came into force on November 1. Last week, several ethnic Serbs left their government jobs in a protest over the policy, according to local media reports.

In March, EULEX temporarily deployed 70 reserve gendarmes from Portugal and France to Kosovo. The reserve police officers left Kosovo on July 18.

EULEX’s regular FPU currently consists of 105 Polish police officers stationed in Mitrovica. EULEX’s FPU is Kosovo’s second security responder and is part of a three-layer security responder mechanism where Kosovo Police is the first security responder, EULEX is the second one, and KFOR is the third security responder.

The EULEX mission in Kosovo is assisting the authorities in establishing sustainable and independent rule of law institutions.

Kosovo, considered to be a potential candidate for EU membership by the European Commission, unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

In 2016, Kosovo signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU which entered into force on April 1 of that year.