Dutch MEP Tineke Strik joined protesters on the streets of Tirana at the end of last month, voicing solidarity with their environmental cause and promising that their voices will be heard in Brussels.
“Honestly, it is very odd to see that you are the ones defending the values and the rights of the European Union and the government isn’t,” she told them.
“I take these lessons back to the European Union, to Brussels, that the people are ready to become a member of the European Union but the government is still not ready for that,” she added.
Strik, from the green-left Progressief Nederland party, which is part of the Green bloc in the European legislature, was leading a European Parliament fact-finding mission on environmental issues to Albania – which hopes to join the bloc by the end of the decade.
In an interview with BIRN, Strik warned that failings on the environment could put Albania’s accession process at risk.
Strik was very direct when she talked about Albania’s law on protected areas – which was adopted in 2024, allowing luxury tourism projects to be developed in protected areas, seen by many as a threat to their nature and biodiversity.
Asked whether this law change is in line with EU standards, she responded: “No, it isn’t.”
“The amendment … which allows for construction in protected areas is not aligned with EU law, if you think of the Bird Directive and the Habitat Directive, and the EU Commission has already warned Albania that it should change the law,” Strik said.
“This is why the European Parliament also called on the Albanian government to repeal this law and make a new law in line with EU standards – and also not to undertake any activity in the protected areas,” she added.
“We call upon the Albanian government not to undertake any [more] activity until a new law is adopted that is in line with the EU standards.”
Albania has seen street protests against the government for more than 40 days, at first in opposition to a luxury tourism project planned in a protected area in Zvernec in the south of Albania, linked to US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The protesters are demanding the repeal of the law on protected areas and also calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government, alleging institutional corruption and a lack of transparency.
On June 17, MEPs expressed “deep regret” over two Albanian laws they said put the interests of luxury tourism developers ahead of protected natural areas.
The extension of the 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 European Parliament said.
It also called for the repeal of the 2024 amendments to the Law on Protected Area, which it said “allow the development of large-scale tourism infrastructure within protected areas” and weaken environmental oversight.
The two laws are key to the planned luxury development in the Vjosa-Narta lagoon area on the Albanian coast, headed by Trump’s son-in-law, Kushner.
Asked by Deutsche Welle in an interview published on July 3 about the changes to the law on protected areas, he answered: “Yes, we have made changes in the law. But guess what? We didn’t change the substance of the law, and our changes are not in breach of European standards and criteria, which we will make sure are verified through a process that has to do with our [accession] negotiations.”
Strik insists the legal changes need to be repealed immediately.
“There at least will be difficult negotiations if Rama just continues to say: ‘I am just continuing with this real estate project, I will not stop the activities.’ Then he will really have a big problem with the EU,” she said.
“If he is serious in his ambitions to enter the EU very soon, he should really immediately repeal this law and also make sure that no construction is being undertaken in the protected area,” she added.
