The European Commission has warned Albania that a luxury resort project backed by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, could jeopardize the country’s bid to join the European Union. The warning, reported by multiple outlets on July 1-2, marks the sharpest intervention yet by Brussels in a controversy that has drawn tens of thousands of Albanians into the streets.
The project, worth over $4 billion (€3.7 billion), would develop a stretch of protected Adriatic coastline that is home to flamingos, Mediterranean monk seals and sea turtle nesting sites. Ivanka Trump described discovering the location while yachting with her husband. “We stopped for a swim,” she told a podcast in May. “Effectively, that is how we found it.”
The European Commission warned that the resort could put Albania on a collision course with EU environmental rules, specifically the Birds and Habitats Directives that form part of the accession criteria. “Albania should refrain from actions that could undermine the fulfillment of the closing benchmarks,” a Commission spokesperson told Politico, urging Tirana to repeal changes to the Law on Protected Areas and terminate the law on strategic investments.
Chapter 27 of the EU accession negotiations covers environment and climate change. Albania is considered a frontrunner for membership, second only to Montenegro among current candidate countries. But the Commission made clear that progress on the chapter depends on compliance, not promises.
Albania’s Environment Minister Sofjan Jaupaj told the Commission that construction on the project has been suspended pending a full environmental impact assessment. The government has assured Brussels that European environmental standards will be respected. Construction permits have not yet been issued. The project is also under investigation by SPAK, Albania’s anti-corruption body.
The protests, dubbed the “Flamingo Revolution” by local media, have been running for weeks. Demonstrators in Tirana have demanded the project be canceled outright. On June 15, an estimated 20,000 people gathered in Skanderbeg Square with banners reading “Albania is not for sale.” The protests represent the largest sustained public mobilization in Albania since the fall of communism.
The resort is backed by Affinity Partners, the investment fund Kushner founded after leaving the White House in 2021. The Albanian government passed an amendment to its investment law in February 2025 that created special exemptions for any project worth 50 million euros or more. Critics say the amendment was tailored to allow the Kushner project to bypass normal environmental review.
The controversy has broader implications. Albania has been a candidate for EU membership since 2014 and opened formal accession negotiations in 2022. The country has made real progress on judicial reform and the rule of law. But the Kushner project has handed Brussels a reason to slow the process, and the protests have put Prime Minister Edi Rama in a position he cannot easily escape.
If he cancels the project, he risks offending the Trump administration at a time when US support matters for Balkan stability. If he lets it proceed, he risks the EU accession process and further domestic unrest.
The project also sits inside a wider pattern. Trump reported $2.2 billion (€2.0 billion) in income for 2025, including $26 million (€24 million) from new foreign real estate ventures in Romania, the UAE and India. The Trump Organization has licensed its name for projects from Bucharest to Abu Dhabi. The Albania resort, backed by Kushner’s Affinity Partners, extends that same model into the Western Balkans, where a small candidate country must weigh EU law against the financial interests of the president’s family.
The question the Commission is asking is not about Trump or Kushner. It is about whether a candidate country can amend its laws to bypass environmental protections for a politically connected investor. The answer to that question will determine more than the fate of a beach.