What started as a protest against a Jared Kushner-financed development project on Sazan island (home to the flamingoes inspiring the movement's name) has now become a demand for the resignation of Albania's prime minister Edi Rama – leaving the EU in a pickle: How can the EU institutions support a movement based on EU values without alienating an important ally and accession country?
En route to 28
To join the EU, an accession country needs to adopt 35 chapters of EU reforms. These changes range from taxation to foreign policy and, controversially in Albania’s case, environmental regulation.
After Montenegro, Albania is a frontrunner to join the EU.
Yet while the country has progressed on EU reforms, it's faced countless challenges domestically. Over the past two decades, the country lost over one million people to emigration, leaving a population of 2.3 million. Polls conducted by the Balkan Barometer in 2023 suggested over 71% of youth (18-24) in the Western Balkans consider leaving.
High unemployment, a cost of living crisis, an enormous shadow economy (constituting upwards of 30% of the country's GDP), and a crisis of public services are among many reasons why people leave – while tourists flock in. Over 12 million travelled to Albania last year, a 56% increase compared to 2019.
All the while, one demand that remained constant was to join the EU. No other accession country in the Western Balkans has higher EU support: over 92% of Albanians are in favour of joining. Prime minister Rama promised in his last election campaign to join the bloc by 2030.
The EU needs Albania too. “The country is of strategic importance to the EU right now,” political scientist Klaudia Koxha told us. Among all Western Balkan countries, Albania is the most aligned with the EU on foreign and security policy and economic integration. But the country was also quick to join US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace”, and holds close ties with Türkiye.
Any EU response to the ongoing protests has to strike a balance between acknowledging the protesters' demands without alienating the country. “It’s the Balkan paradox,” Koxha said. “The EU invokes strict standards of democracy, rule of law, environmental governance, and public participation, yet at times appears to tolerate exceptions when broader strategic interests or geopolitical stability are at stake.”
What the protesters, and EU, can do
EU Accession rules set benchmarks, but whether they’re enforced can depend on local action and international awareness.
Take the current protests: the EU Commission had already warned of the environmental risks of the projects back in November 2025.
Yet the topic only became a dealbreaker on Albania's accession once the local protests made it unavoidable. “Even though the European Commission had been raising these concerns for some time, we had not seen public mobilisation on this scale,” Koxha continued. She argued that the protests and the attention of members of European Parliament worked to bring enough attention to the issue.
So far, the protests have led the Commission to demand an environmental impact assessment for the Kushner-backed development.
A similar pressure campaign by civil society helped turn a Montenegrin wetland, which hosts important migratory routes for birds, into an EU accession benchmark – preventing it from turning into a privatised luxury marina with a golf course, à la Mar-a-Lago.
For some, impact assessments are not enough. A delegation of members of the European Parliament, including Anna Strolenberg of the Greens, visited Albania last week. They’re asking the Commission for a complete pause to the project.
“The protesters stand up for EU values, for transparency, against corruption, for the protection of nature,” Strolenberg told us. “What we can do now is to keep raising awareness about this topic, and keep up the pressure on the European Commission and the member states who are in these negotiations. Albania will be a part of the EU, but only if we follow what happens next.”