Brussels presses Albania over Kushner-linked Adriatic resort project

Brussels has pressed Albania over a Kushner-linked luxury resort on the Adriatic coast, sharpening a dispute that now reaches beyond local conservation into the country’s bid to join the European Union. The project, backed by Affinity Partners, has drawn protests over its location near the Vjosa-Narta wetlands, where environmental groups say fragile habitats could be put at risk.

The development has been described as a €1.4 billion resort on an island off Albania and along an undeveloped stretch of coastline near the Vjosa-Narta protected landscape. Conservation groups say the area supports flamingos, seals and sea turtle nesting sites and sits within the Vjosa River delta, a system they describe as one of Europe’s last wild river landscapes. BirdLife International said heavy machinery had been operating there since late April without permits and without an environmental impact assessment, with damage reported to coastal forests, dunes and access roads inside the Pishë Poro-Narta Protected Area.

The European Commission has urged Albania to act “without delay” to align with EU environmental legislation if it wants to accede to the bloc. Officials in Brussels have also raised concerns about possible shortcomings in the project, underscoring how closely the resort is now tied to Albania’s European ambitions. Albania has spent years moving through the accession process, and environmental compliance is one of the areas where Brussels has kept pressure on Tirana.

Albania’s environment minister, Sofjan Jaupaj, told the Commission in Brussels that construction had been suspended and that an environmental impact assessment would be carried out with civil society, while a ministry spokesperson said no final project proposal had been submitted and no construction permit had been approved. Brussels has also long urged Tirana to scrap its 2015 Strategic Investments law, which can fast-track favored projects and risks bypassing environmental safeguards. That law has become a flashpoint in the broader debate over whether the state is bending rules for politically connected capital.

The project has already triggered mass opposition at home. Thousands of Albanians protested in Tirana, including the largest demonstration so far on June 5, and the slogan “Albania is not for sale” became a rallying cry. What began as a fight over one resort has turned into a larger test of whether Albania will enforce conservation rules when a high-profile Western investor is involved, or whether economic ambition will outrun the standards Brussels says must come first.