A huge luxury resort on Albania's protected coast linked to Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, is sparking protests, environmental concerns and scrutiny as the country advances toward EU membership.Bulldozers, barbed-wire fences and security guards dragging protesters across the sand are not the images Albania hoped would dominate headlines just days after it received positive signals from Brussels over progress in its EU accession talks. Yet that is precisely what happened in the the Narta Lagoon area, a protected landscape on the country's southern coast. At the center of the dispute is the proposed Zvernec Peninsula development, a tourism project linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump. What started as a fight over construction in a protected area has grown into a wider debate about development, environmental protection and Albania's future in Europe. Just 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the city of Vlora, developers are planning what could become one of the largest tourism projects in Albania's history. The company behind it says it could exceed €4 billion ($4.6 billion) and create more than 10,000 jobs. Prime Minister Edi Rama has described it as a strategic investment that could help move Albania into the top tier of global tourism. Protected landscape under pressure Pishe Poro–Narta is one of Albania's most important protected coastal landscapes. Its lagoons, wetlands, pine forests and sand dunes provide habitat for hundreds of species and serve as an important stopover point for migratory birds traveling between Europe and Africa. On the morning of May 30, activists walked through pine forests and sand dunes to reach the construction site. Waiting for them were construction equipment, newly erected fences and private security guards. Videos shared on social media showed demonstrators being forcibly removed from the area, sparking public outrage. In the days that followed, thousands of people joined solidarity protests in Tirana under the slogan "Albania is not for sale," calling for the project to be halted. Environmental organisations have also called for full disclosure of documents related to the project, arguing that key decisions have not been made transparent to the public. For more than a decade, Besjana Shehu, the conservationist and co-founder of the Albanian Ornithological Society, has worked to protect the wetlands, forests and lagoons of Pishe Poro–Narta. But she said the scenes that unfolded on May 30 marked a turning point in a much longer battle over the area's future. "This is not simply a local dispute over a fence, a road or a construction site, but also about how decisions like this are being taken, and the lack of transparency surrounding them," she told DW. "What is at stake is the ecological integrity of more than 18,000 hectares of one of Albania's most important natural corridors." Rama: 'We must enter the Champions League of global tourism' For more than an hour on Monday, Rama devoted much of a public address to the controversy surrounding the Zvernec Peninsula project. The prime minister condemned the private security guards who were filmed dragging a protester across the sand, calling their behavior "disgusting." But his remarks left little doubt that he had no intention of stepping back from the project. "What do I need power for if I have to abandon the vision I have shared with you all these years?" Rama asked. "We must enter the Champions League of global tourism," he said, arguing that Albania should move beyond mass tourism and compete for a more exclusive, high-end market. Referring to the protected status of the lagoon, he argued that the area falls under a category where conservation can coexist with economic activity. Rama also stressed that the project remains in a procedural phase. According to the prime minister, no final environmental permit has yet been issued, while both the environmental impact assessment and the architectural design are still under development. Europe is watching Pishe Poro–Narta is not just another protected area, and the project comes at a particularly sensitive moment for Albania's EU accession process. The natural area has already been proposed for the Emerald Network, an ecological network based on the Bern Convention, and it is expected to become part of the Natura 2000 network once the country joins the European Union. According to the European Commission, the way the area is managed has become a test of Albania's capacity to preserve such sites as a future member state. As part of the closing benchmarks for negotiations on environment and climate change, Albania must demonstrate its ability to protect designated habitats and prevent the deterioration of species and ecosystems. Against this backdrop, the European Commission has said it is "closely following the developments" in Pishe Poro–Narta. In comments to DW, the commission reiterated that the repeated extension of Albania's strategic investments law "continues to raise concerns about possible environmental impacts, particularly in protected areas" and stressed that "EU standards must therefore be fully taken into account in this project." 'Last intact living delta' in the Mediterranean Few people have followed the ecosystem more closely than Ulrich Eichelmann, head of Riverwatch and coordinator of the Save the Blue Heart of Europe campaign. He was among the leading voices behind the campaign that helped secure national park status for the Vjosa, Europe's last wild river that flows through Albania. "The Vjosa Delta is the last intact living delta in the entire Mediterranean," he told DW. Across much of the Mediterranean Sea, dams, coastal development and decades of human intervention have transformed rivers and coastlines. According to Eichelmann, the Vjosa Wild River National Park remains one of the last places where these natural processes still function largely undisturbed. "It is a remnant, an example of how our world looked a hundred years ago," he said. For Eichelmann, the debate ultimately raises a broader question that extends well beyond Albania's borders. "Is there anything that we don't want to destroy?" he asked. "This is something that the international community must fight for." Edited by: Jess Smee