FLASH
Shkruar nga Fred Abrahams
Protests in Albania are exposing the gap between reforms and reality...
Beware the gap. This is the main message emerging from the European Commission's report on Albania for 2025, which the European Parliament approved last week.
Both the Commission and the Parliament found numerous ways to highlight the gap between candidate Albania's laws, policies and strategies, on the one hand, and their implementation, on the other.
In that gap, flamingos roam. Mass protests in Albania have entered their fourth week, with no sign of losing momentum. Government attempts to label them pro-Greek, pro-Serbian, pro-Iranian or anti-Semitic have failed to stem the rising tide. Nor has the use of vulgar language or a strangely narcissistic song had any effect.
Dubbed the "Flamingo Revolution," after the birds endangered by a luxury tourism project, the protesters direct their anger at what they consider a corrupt political elite that is turning public property for private gain.
The protesters live in a country that, on the one hand, has a judicial reform supported by the European Union and, on the other, a declining ranking in the Transparency International index; that, on the one hand, has a new anti-corruption strategy and special prosecutors and, on the other, a ruling party that protects high-level officials; that, on the one hand, has mechanisms to combat money laundering and, on the other, large-scale construction related to money laundering.
Albania’s challenge to membership is no longer legislative, it is a lack of political will that permeates the entire system. One notable exception is Albania’s security and defense policy, where the Commission assessed the country’s “full compliance,” including with regard to sanctions against Russia.
The consistency in the external arena is not at all surprising. It fits a pattern since the fall of communism 36 years ago: Albanian governments know how to behave well abroad and govern as they please at home.
Ironically, one area where legislation and implementation have converged is the tourism project involving Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and a vague mix of other actors. Following the extension of the 2015 Strategic Investment Law and the amendment of the Law on Protected Areas, bulldozers were driven into the Zvërnec dunes on the coast, sparking the current protests, especially after guards beat a protester and dragged him across the sand.
Last week’s European Parliament resolution rightly took this fact into account. It criticized the Law on Strategic Investments for “enabling accelerated permit granting procedures and reducing the level of environmental review,” called for the repeal of the 2024 amendments to the Law on Protected Areas, and demanded the establishment of a moratorium on new permits and construction within protected areas.
Prime Minister Edi Rama reacted quickly and promised that the project would undergo a proper environmental impact assessment. This would not have happened without the protesters and the international attention they generated, which has dented Rama's polished international image.
But the European Union should not be satisfied with a promise of an environmental assessment. The essential link still needs to be made between this development and the gaps that the Commission has identified in the areas of the rule of law, corruption and organised crime.
It is enough to consider that the most trusted institution in Albania today is not the government, the parliament or any political party, but the Special Prosecution Office against Corruption, which the Commission rightly appreciates, known as SPAK. This month, SPAK has issued 20 arrest warrants and seized over 100 million euros in assets, while following the trail of drug money flowing into construction projects, including the one with Kushner and Trump.
This is the essence of what the protesters are demanding: not a ban on tourism projects, but developments and a government that respects the law.
The European Union has moved quickly to integrate Albania, largely for geostrategic reasons; in this sense, Vladimir Putin has given Edi Rama a useful boost. But ignoring the people who are now filling the streets of Albania, demanding transparency and accountability, will undermine the EU's credibility and betray the democratic values that the Union claims to represent.
The protesters are marching fast. The European Union would do well to keep up with them. / Adapted from Euractiv
Fred Abrahams is co-director of the Aryeh Neier Center for Justice and author of the book “Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy”
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