Brussels is keeping a watchful eye on the political unrest in Albania, cautioning Tirana that its handling of the situation could be costly in its application to join the EU.
TIRANA — The European Commission has cautioned Albania against actions that may impact its EU accession path, amid ongoing national protests over a Jared Kushner-linked development project on the country’s southern coast.
National protests entered their seventh consecutive day on Sunday as Albanians demanded the cancellation of a luxury resort linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, arguing that the project threatens a protected wildlife area home to flamingos, seals, and turtle nesting sites.
The Commission is warning that the project could put Albania on a collision course with the EU’s environmental rules, jeopardizing its ability to close the green Chapter 27 in its accession talks.
“Albania should refrain from actions that could undermine the fulfillment of the closing benchmarks and [we] expect the Albanian authorities to act without delay,” a European Commission spokesperson told POLITICO in response to a question about the controversial proposed development.
“In the EU accession process, as part of the closing benchmarks for negotiating Chapter 27 on environment and climate change, Albania is expected to align fully with EU legislation in this area, including the Birds and the Habitats Directives,” said the spokesperson, urging that Albania repeal the changes to the Law on Protected Areas and “terminate” the law on strategic investments. As part of the process of joining the EU, Albania is expected to align with the EU’s environmental rules.
The spokesperson also told POLITICO that Albania’s environment minister, Sofjan Jaupaj, had informed the Commission in Brussels that construction on the project has been suspended and an environmental impact assessment will be carried out with civil society.
“We have already expressed our concerns to the minister of the environment about the potential shortcomings of this project,” the spokesperson said.
Jaupaj did not reply to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Dubbed the “Flamingo Revolution” after the flamingos that reside in the protected area, the protests intensified over the weekend, with calls growing for Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign. Albania’s anti-corruption prosecutor, SPAK, has also opened an investigation into controversial changes in the area’s protected status and land ownership in 2024.
“We note that the project is also subject to ongoing SPAK investigations that reportedly extend beyond environmental concerns,” said the spokesperson.
Rama recently told POLITICO that there is not much interest from EU leaders in the political unrest in Albania at the moment. In an interview on the sidelines of the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Montenegro on June 5, Rama also maintained that “if it wasn’t Jared, they wouldn’t give a shit” about the project.
Albanians in New York, London, Brussels, Milan and Berlin, as well as other cities in Albania, have joined the calls for the project to be scrapped and for Albania’s nature not to fall victim to unchecked tourism.
Albania is a frontrunner to join the EU alongside Montenegro, and Rama has set a target of joining the bloc by 2030, with technical negotiations to close at the end of 2027.
The scrutiny comes because of Albania’s 2024 changes to its Protected Areas law, which critics say opened the door to large-scale development in sensitive wildlife areas. That includes the Vjosa-Narta protected area, where the Kushner-linked project is located and lacks an environmental impact assessment.
Brussels has also long pressed Tirana to scrap its 2015 Strategic Investments law, as it gives favored projects fast-track treatment that risks bypassing EU environmental safeguards.