Amid continuing street protests, Albania is coming under increasing pressure to reverse its weakening of environmental protections in the interests of ‘luxury tourism’, or risk a setback in its pursuit of EU accession.
Fjori Sinoruka
Against a backdrop of protests, the European Parliament’s criticism this month of Albania’s attitude towards the environment may spell trouble for Tirana’s European Union accession hopes.
On June 17, MEPs expressed “deep regret” over two laws that critics say put the interests of luxury tourism developers ahead of the wellbeing of protected natural areas.
The extension of a 2015 Law on Strategic Investments enables “accelerated permitting procedures and reduced environmental scrutiny, which risk adversely affecting protected areas and other environmentally sensitive zones”, the parliament said, while calling also for the repeal of amendments adopted in 2024 to the Law on Protected Area, which, MEPs said, “allow the development of large-scale tourism infrastructure within protected areas” while weakening environmental oversight.
These two laws are key to a planned luxury development in the Vjosa-Narta lagoon area on the Albanian coast, headed by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
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