EULEX chief: EU countries are ready to risk their police officers’ lives in support of Kosovo

EULEX chief Giovanni Pietro Barbano says that the member states of the European Union are prepared to risk the lives of their police officers serving in this mission in order to support Kosovo and its institutions.

In an interview with KosovaPress, which is also his last as head of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, Barbano stressed that EULEX, in its role as the second security responder in Kosovo, is ready to act when necessary. According to him, this constitutes a highly important political message.

Barbano: EU states are ready to risk their police officers’ lives to support Kosovo

“The Kosovo Police is the first security responder, while KFOR is the third responder. In between them, EULEX acts as the second security responder, at the clear request of the Kosovo Police, if the situation requires it. In doing so, we exercise our role as second responder in line with the will of the member states of the European Union. This means that EU member states are ready to risk the lives of their police officers serving in EULEX in order to support Kosovo and its institutions. This is a very important political message that must be understood. It means that we are ready to intervene if necessary,” Barbano told KosovaPress.

He further adds that EULEX remains committed to contributing to the preservation of security, while noting that there are also mechanisms in place to secure reinforcements from reserve police units if the need arises.

Barbano: If needed, we can receive reinforcements from reserve units to preserve security

“We hope there will be no need for this, but we also have mechanisms to receive reinforcements from reserve police units provided by the European Gendarmerie Force. We remain committed to contributing to efforts to preserve security. In this regard, we have improved the mechanisms for joint training and continuous information exchange, and we have also increased our interoperability with the Kosovo Police and KFOR. This has proven effective in several cases,” he underlined.