Today the Kosovar Parliament is expected to vote for the transformation of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) into a regular army. Since the Kosovo Liberation War in the late 1990s, the country has had no official armed forces.
Rather than creating an actual armed forces, which would require the amendment of the Constitution and is bitterly opposed by Serbia, the draft laws that will be voted today expend the capacities of the KSF to match those of a regular army. The move is supported by the US, whereas the NATO has been much more hesitant.
The decision to form an army comes at a time that Kosovo is the only country in Europe left whose citizens need visa to travel to the EU, while the country is still not recognized as independent by five EU member states.
Recently, Kosovo imposed a 100% tariff on imports from Serbia, after Serbia blocked Kosovo from becoming an Interpol member. At the same time, the Kosovar and Albanian government decided to enter into a customs union, erasing border control and custom fees.
