Members of the Albanian diaspora from Belgium and other European countries will gather in Brussels on Saturday, 3 October, bringing the civic mobilisation known as the Flamingo Revolution to the heart of the European Union.
The gathering will take place from 16:00 to 19:00 at Robert Schuman Roundabout, outside the European Commission.
The international demonstration in Brussels marks the latest chapter in a mobilization that began in Albania in May 2026, following opposition to a tourism project affecting the Vjosa–Narta protected area. Local residents and environmental activists mobilized in late May, daily demonstrations reached Tirana on May 31. Since then, the movement’s demands have broadened to include public accountability, the protection of natural areas, strategic investments and governance.
More than four months on, demonstrations continue daily in Tirana, and the movement has taken on an international dimension. By 9 June, diaspora communities had already joined the protests in around 20 cities. Today, the movement’s grassroots documentation platform records mobilisation across more than 70 diaspora cities around the world.
The scale of the Albanian diaspora is significant. INSTAT estimates that 2.26 million Albanian citizens lived outside Albania in 2025 — around 49% of all Albanian citizens. In Belgium, Eurostat data cited by INSTAT recorded approximately 15,600 Albania-born residents in 2024, including around 8,500 Albanian citizens.
This will not be the first demonstration on these issues in Brussels. This time, however, the mobilisation will have an international dimension, with Albanians travelling from several EU countries and from beyond the EU — from cities across Belgium and Albania, as well as from many European countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Austria, France, Greece and the United Kingdom, and from the United States.
The scale of the Albanian diaspora is significant. According to INSTAT estimates, 2,256,346 Albanian citizens were living outside Albania on 1 January 2025, representing around 49% of all Albanian citizens. Eurostat data cited by INSTAT show that in 2024 Belgium was home to 15,585 Albania-born residents, including 8,496 Albanian citizens.
According to Eurostat data, in 2024 alone, 48,482 people with Albanian citizenship acquired the citizenship of an EU Member State. This represented 4.1% of all citizenship acquisitions recorded that year. Albanians were the third-largest group by former citizenship. Albania’s European integration is therefore a concrete issue for the many people who already live, work and take part in communities across the EU.
Brussels is therefore a continuation of an international network of civic mobilisation, rather than its starting point. The demonstration comes as Albania enters a crucial stage of its EU accession negotiations. All 33 negotiating chapters have been opened, and in July 2026, Albania provisionally closed its first three. The EU has made clear that implementation, a track record and sustained results will remain central to the accession process, particularly in the fundamentals cluster, which covers areas such as democratic institutions, the rule of law and public administration.
For a diaspora that includes not only Albanian citizens living abroad but also EU citizens, residents, and taxpayers, Albania’s accession is not merely a matter of foreign policy. The Brussels demonstration unites a civic movement originating in Albania with the Albanian diaspora — deeply rooted in European societies — as it addresses the institutions responsible for assessing Albania’s progress toward EU membership and calls for its voice to be heard regarding the country’s issues they believe deserve attention.
Another demonstration is scheduled for the following day in Brussels, organized by the Kosovo Albanian community in response to the verdict handed down on September 16 by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague against four former commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).