In a small village in northwestern Albania, around 200 demonstrators tore down the metal fence and barbed wire around the construction site of a luxury resort on 13 June. They chanted "Revolution" as they pulled away the barriers next to the police. The story sounds local - until you see who is behind the project: the firm Affinity Partners, linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump.

Residents of the village of Rrjoll claim the land was seized from 200 families. "The protests will not stop until the residents of Rrjoll are compensated," one of the owners said. The protest took its name from the flamingos that live in the protected natural area where the resort is planned - near the islands of Zvernec and Sazan on the Adriatic coast. Hence the name "flamingo revolution".

But behind the environmental story lies something far bigger for Albania's future. The European Commission has warned the country that the project directly endangers the standards for EU membership - protection of the environment, bird habitats and wildlife. Brussels is demanding that Albania reverse the amendments to its protected-areas laws and repeal the strategic-investment law that made the project possible. A Commission spokesman said the country must "fully align with European environmental legislation", and that "without delay".

And here is the picture the whole Balkans know well. On one side, foreign capital tied to a powerful American family, with laws tailored precisely so the project goes through. On the other, people who say their land was taken, and a natural world with no one to defend it but the villagers and a few flamingos. Albania stands at an old Balkan crossroads - whether to open the door to the big investor, or to heed Brussels, whose membership it has dreamed of for decades. The question every country in the region sooner or later faces: how much does a single "yes" cost when the EU's door is the very same door you are pushing on too?