Our Albanian partners have repeatedly pressed for the judiciary to finally take up the case. Now there has been some movement on the matter.
© PPNEA
Building in a wetland...The construction site in November 2025 after heavy rainfall in the region.
© Arsen RroshiOn November 23, 2022, AOS and PPNEA officially filed a lawsuit against the construction of what we consider to be the illegal Vlora Airport. We supported our partners in this endeavor. However, the Albanian courts treated the lawsuit like a hot potato and repeatedly postponed the case. In the meantime, construction of the airport is well underway, and valuable natural areas in one of the most precious ecosystems in the eastern Adriatic have already been destroyed.
"Three years and countless loops through various instances later the Administrative Court of Appeal has legitimised our Albanian partners as parties to the case" says Annette Spangenberg, EuroNatur’s Head of Freshwater Programme. "Finally the court can go to the merits of the case."
Since construction work began in 2021, Vlora International Airport has faced strong criticism not only from environmental groups, but also from the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species. The construction of the airport near the Narta Lagoon — an internationally protected wetland of outstanding importance for bird migration and part of the Vjosa Delta — violates national and international environmental legislation.