On 8 November, a Reserve Formed Police Unit (RFPU) consisting of 23 gendarmes from the Italian Carabinieri and members of the European Gendarmerie Force (EUROGENDFOR), was temporarily deployed to Kosovo to reinforce the capacity of the existing Formed Police Unit (FPU) of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX).
 
The RFPU is deployed to Kosovo in response to the Mission’s need to have additional forces on the ground and better support our Kosovo counterparts, if requested and if necessary.  
 
The regular FPU of EULEX, consisting of 105 Polish police officers, is stationed in Mitrovica, and is Kosovo’s second security responder, forming part of a three-layer security responder mechanism where the Kosovo Police is the first security responder, EULEX is the second, and NATO/KFOR is the third.  
 
The newly deployed RFPU is currently made up of 23 gendarmes from the Italian Carabinieri and is based at EULEX’s Support Compound in Fushë Kosovë/Kosovo Polje. The RFPU is under the command of EULEX and will support the Mission in meeting its tasks, including as Kosovo’s second security responder if necessary.  
 
The safety of women, men, girls, and boys from all communities in Kosovo is EULEX’s main priority and the deployment of the Reserve Formed Police Unit shows the determination of EULEX to continue to support the stability of Kosovo and contribute to the security of its population.
 
This is the second time that a RFPU is deployed to Kosovo: in March 2022, EULEX temporarily reinforced its FPU with a Reserve Unit of 70 gendarmes from Portugal and France. The gendarmes left Kosovo on 18 July.   

Background

The European Gendarmerie Force is a multinational, operational, pre-organised, robust, and rapidly deployable Police Force.