The Ministry of Defense intends to begin implementing a program for military service for citizens this year. The service is intended to be voluntary, unlike the Government’s earlier commitment to make it mandatory. But military experts and former commanders of the Kosovo Security Force have expressed the opinion that neither model can be implemented in Kosovo.
The financial cost is one of the main reasons why compulsory military service, which was pledged about 5 years ago, will not be implemented in Kosovo.
Instead of this option, the voluntary military service model will be applied.
Minister of Defense, Ejup Maqedonci, has said that the implementation of this project will begin this year, as it is also part of the National Program for Comprehensive Defense, which was approved by the Government in 2024.
“The format is different, the goal is the same: always protecting the territory, the lives of citizens, but this format, namely voluntary service, creates easier, more affordable costs, is more appropriate in the legal and constitutional aspects of the laws that Kosovo has,” stressed the Macedonian.
According to him, the goal is to build a capable and effective defense system in the face of threats and dangers that may threaten the country.
“In the concept of voluntary service that is within the framework of comprehensive protection, every citizen of Kosovo can voluntarily register with the Ministry of Defense and be part of the defense structures, more precisely the Kosovo Army, without having to do this in a mandatory form. This enables our young people, our citizens, in addition to developing their activities in support of the jobs they have both in the private sector and in other institutions, to also be ready to serve for the Kosovo Army for the purpose of protecting the country,” he said.
But the former commander-in-chief of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF), General Kadri Kastrati, has assessed that the country currently does not have the necessary legal and organizational infrastructure for either compulsory or voluntary service.
“In order to train young men and women with a general military education, we must also change the structure of the municipalities. Each municipality should have an office that deals with the data of young men and women so that those who undergo training would have to go back and enter into the system what specialization they were trained in and what direction they completed their military training. Secondly, we do not have sufficient infrastructure for young men and women to go to train, to sleep there, we would need uniforms and much more, which at the moment the Security Force does not have the means to do,” emphasized the former commander of the KSF.
The retired general has proposed a model similar to that implemented in the United States of America (USA).
“The Americans have a practice where young men and women of the country go on weekends in training suits, from 7 to 7, with a bottle of water and food, to receive general theoretical and general knowledge, after a few weekends based on the assessment of KSF officers, they return as young men and women or as potential reserves of the armed forces to be in a state of readiness if Kosovo needs them to mobilize one day,” said Kastrati.
The National Comprehensive Defense Program was approved on September 11, 2024. Compulsory military service is not included in it, even though it was a commitment of Prime Minister Albin Kurti before he came to power.