The Supreme Court of Kosovo has annulled a provision of an administrative instruction that required KLA (UÇK) veterans to prove they were unemployed in order to receive their pension.
The provision, under Administrative Instruction No. 01/2025 issued by the Ministry of Finance, Labor, and Transfers (MFPT), mandated that veterans submit a document from the Kosovo Tax Administration proving they were not employed to qualify for financial compensation.
The Supreme Court ruled this requirement illegal, noting that Law 16A, paragraph 5, does not prohibit veterans working in the private sector from receiving pensions. Only those employed in public institutions or state-owned enterprises, funded by the state budget, are excluded from pension eligibility.
The Kosovo War Veterans Organization, which had filed the lawsuit against the Ministry, welcomed the ruling as a restoration of legal rights for veterans employed in the private sector.
“This decision is a victory for justice and the law, as it corrects an injustice that denied many veterans their legal right to compensation despite working in the private sector,” the organization said.
The Court emphasized that pension eligibility depends not on general employment status but on the type of employer and source of salary funding, specifically whether it is state-funded.
The ruling instructs the Ministry to amend or align the 2015 administrative instruction with the 2017 law, removing the requirement that veterans be unemployed to qualify for compensation.
Currently, out of approximately 46,000 registered KLA veterans, around 37,000 receive a monthly pension of €204. According to the law, only certain categories of veterans, including combatants, qualify for pensions and additional benefits.
