Toxic Dust, Blackened Lungs and Ghost Incinerators Put Albania’s EU Accession Hopes at Risk
Prosecutors say 33 arrest warrants target customs and environment agency staff as they expand a probe into a scheme that left waste untreated and public funds missing.
- Asthma-Sufferer Fatmira Serjani is taking the city of Elbasan and the Eco-Elb landfill manager to court, marking Albania's first legal action of its kind following a July 2025 fire at the waste dump.
- Decades of pollution stem from the 1970s "Steel of the Party" complex, compounded by a failed €150 million waste management project that included "ghost" incinerators in Tirana and Elbasan which never functioned properly.
- Residents report children coughing and black dust covering homes, while prosecutors jailed former Environment Minister Lefter Koka for receiving 3.7 million euros in kickbacks and arrested dump manager Leli Kaja on corruption charges Monday.
- EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos warned that failing to enforce anti-corruption legislation threatens Albania's accession prospects, as environmental failures complicate the country's path to meeting European standards.
- Anti-Corruption prosecutors have issued 33 arrest warrants against customs officials, while analyst Tefta Kelmendi of the Jacques Delors Institute described recent high-profile cases as a "big test" for judicial independence amid growing pressure on the anti-graft agency.
13 Articles
13 Articles
Toxic dust, blackened lungs and ghost incinerators put Albania’s EU accession hopes at risk
ELBASAN (Albania), Oct 9 — For several days this summer the Albanian city of Elbasan choked in a dense cloud of stinging smoke coming from the direction of its notorious...
‘A sun as black as my lungs’: how corruption crucified a polluted Albania city
The Albanian city of Elbasan was engulfed in smoke from its steelworks, revealing corruption and environmental mismanagement, with hazardous materials improperly stored at a local factory.
'A sun as black as my lungs': how corruption crucified a polluted Albania city
Environmental inspectors who rushed to two fires discovered 318 tonnes of toxic industrial dust that had been stored for months in a chrome factory, AlbChrome, with no transfer contracts for its treatment or safe disposal. The site, owned by the Turkish group Yildirim, was temporarily shut. It is the latest in a litany of disasters to befall one of the most benighted industrial cities in Europe, repeatedly blanketed in lethal smoke from similar …
ELBASAN (Albania), Oct 9 ♪ For several days this summer the Albanian city of Elbasan chosen in a dense cloud of st... ♪
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