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“Trump Island”: EU warns Albania

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07.06.2026 The European Commission has informed Albania about actions that may impact its EU accession path, amid ongoing national protests week over a Trump family-linked development project on the country’s protected coast.

Today the national protests entered their seventh consecutive day as Albanians demanded the cancellation of a luxury resort plans linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, insisting that the project threatens a protected wildlife area home to flamingos, seals, turtle nesting sites, and other animals, and birds.

The Commission is warning that the project could put Albania on jeopardy with the EU’s environmental rules, influencing 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 said.

“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.
“We have already expressed our concerns to the minister of the environment about the potential shortcomings of this project,” the spokesperson said.

Albania’s environment minister, Sofjan Jaupaj, informed the Commission that the construction upon the project has been suspended and an environmental impact assessment will be carried out in co-operation with the civil society.

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.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has dismissed the enviromental protests against a planned luxury resort as a politically motivated campaign fueled by critics of U.S. President Donald Trump, insisting the project poses no risk to the wildlife.

As a result of pulic indigation the Albanian anti-corruption prosecutors froze the bank accounts of a landholding company tied to a controversial $4 billion luxury resort project backed by Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. The escalating crisis over the coastal development has triggered mass protests, a sharp diplomatic rift with neighboring Greece, and stern warnings from the European Union.

The preventive seizure, ordered by the Special Prosecution Against Corruption and Organized Crime, targeted Albania Land Development amid a widening investigation into allegedly fraudulent property titles. The company, owned by the prominent Qatari entrepreneurs Moutaz and Ramez Al-Khayyat, recently purchased beachfront plots in Zvërnec. The protected coastal area along the Adriatic Sea, near the southern city of Vlora, is where Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, plans to build an elite mega-resort.

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