Brussels – Flamingos, red-and-black flags outside the European Commission headquarters, and a clear message: “Albania is not for sale”. Environmental protests against a luxury property development project linked to Jared Kushner’s company – the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump – have reached Brussels in an effort to draw the attention of EU institutions to a domestic issue that could have significant implications for Tirana’s accession process.
“I would be cautious about interpreting the current protests as disconnected from the enlargement process. If anything, they may reflect the growing internalisation of European standards and expectations,” explains Iliriana Gjoni, Research Analyst at Carnegie Europe, speaking with The New Union Post.
For the past week, thousands of Albanian citizens have been gathering in Tirana to call for the suspension of construction works in Zvërnec, in the district of Vlorë, which would partially encroach upon a protected area. The project by Affinity Partners – which is also involved in the Trump Tower project in Belgrade, another example of so-called “corrosive capital” – entails the redevelopment of the uninhabited island of Sazan in the Adriatic, as well as hundreds of hectares of the Vjosa-Narta protected area, a coastal zone that is home to flamingos, seals and sea turtle nesting sites.
“Citizens are increasingly comparing domestic governance practices against the standards that Albania itself has committed to through the accession process,” Gjoni notes, arguing that what we may be witnessing is “enlargement functioning precisely as intended.” Not only in Albania, but across the Western Balkans region, citizens are becoming “more aware of their rights, more willing to demand accountability, and more confident in scrutinising those in power.” Whether the issue is environmental protection, public consultation, corruption, media freedom or major investment projects, they “expect governance to meet EU standards.”
What is particularly interesting is that the current protests come at a positive moment in Tirana’s EU accession process. Albania is generally regarded as one of the administratively strongest candidates in the Western Balkans and has advanced rapidly through the negotiation process. At the same time, the debate surrounding the positive Interim Benchmark Assessment Report (IBAR) assessment was welcomed by some observers as evidence that the accession process still retained credibility. As Carnegie Europe’s Gjoni notes, “there was a sense that someone was paying attention.”
For this reason, the EU institutions also have an “important responsibility” to assess the situation in Zvërnec within the broader framework of the accession process, as it falls within the scope of Chapter 27 (Environment and Climate Change), one of the most challenging chapters for candidate countries. If the enlargement process is to remain credible, Gjoni argues, “citizens must feel that the same standards expected of candidate countries are consistently applied when assessing governments’ actions.”
While Prime Minister Edi Rama has argued that his approach is fully compatible with European law and standards – also attacking both the protesters and sections of the European media, as it often happens – “if that is the case, the accession process provides the mechanisms to demonstrate this,” Gjoni continues. If shortcomings are identified, the logic of enlargement is “precisely” that they can be addressed and corrected.
As she points out, Albania remains “one of the most pro-European societies” in the region, and recent events suggest that “citizens increasingly expect their leaders to live up to the standards associated with that aspiration.” Many of the demands being articulated – including transparency, accountability, participation and consultation – “are increasingly understood through a European lens”, revealing a “stronger” EU dimension than the student protests in Serbia, which have “largely” remained rooted in domestic grievances and have “consciously avoided framing themselves through an EU lens.”
The state of EU–Albania relations
Albania’s application for EU membership was submitted in April 2009. EU candidate status was granted in June 2014. In April 2018, the European Commission issued a recommendation to open accession negotiations with Tirana, as Albania and North Macedonia were grouped together under the so-called ‘package approach’, meaning that either both would advance together or neither would.
Due to deteriorating relations between North Macedonia and Bulgaria, Tirana’s path towards EU accession negotiations also stalled until 19 July 2022, when the accession conferences took place in Brussels. On 25 September 2024, the Council positively assessed Tirana’s alignment with the opening benchmarks for the first cluster of chapters.
On 26 May 2026, Albania received a positive Interim Benchmark Assessment Report (IBAR), indicating that it has met the interim benchmarks in Chapter 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights) and Chapter 24 (Justice, Freedom and Security) – a prerequisite for closing chapters deemed ready for provisional closure.
As of now, all 33 negotiating chapters are currently open. In Tirana, the goal is to conclude negotiations by 2027, with full membership in sight by 2030.
