Legalisation of small, light arms begins in October

At the meeting, a discussion was discussed about the process of destruction of weapons, where commitments and interilateral co-ordination were agreed to carry out the destruction of weapons as planned this year.

Legislation of weapons was one of the main topics discussed. At this meeting, it was stressed that the Administrative Guide for Legalisation is in the public consultation phase and is expected to pass the necessary phases so that the legalisation process can begin in October of this year.

In this case, the National Coordinator for Small Arms and Lehta, Kosovo Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Izmi Zeka, stressed that we must all jointly engage in combating illegal arms and ammunition trafficking in Kosovo, under the initiative for the entire Western Balkans.

The key key objective within 1923 is to ensure the adoption of weapons control legislation fully harmonised with the EU regulatory framework and other relevant international obligations standardised with the entire region”, Zeka said.

Based on the joint declaration by the meeting held in Podgorica for the commitment to combating illegal arms and ammunition trafficking in the Western Balkans, the Republic of Kosovo has made the implementation of these obligations a priority, and it was concluded that the Republic of Kosovo over the past 10 years has achieved remarkable progress in the area of controlling small and light arms, and since 2008 is implementing the strategy and action plan for AVL.

At the end of the meeting, all participants agreed to boost labour dynamics and interilateral co-operation, with the aim of setting priorities and projects.