The European Commission will review the protection status of the wolf in Europe given the “real danger” posed by the concentration of this animal in some regions of the continent and is considering “making the conditions for this more flexible”. These animals may be depressed In order to make an informed decision, Brussels has decided to expand a consultation launched in April to invite “local communities, scientists and all interested parties…”
The European Commission will review the protection status of the wolf in Europe given the “real danger” posed by the concentration of this animal in some regions of the continent and is considering “making the conditions for this more flexible”. These animals may be down to make an informed decision, Brussels has decided to expand a consultation launched in April and has called on “local communities, scientists and all interested parties” to provide updated data on the wolf population “and its impacts” by September 22nd to transmit.
“The concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger for livestock and possibly also for people,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in announcing the launch of the new query.
As the European executive said in a statement, Brussels will “decide on a proposal to change, if necessary, the protection status of the wolf in the EU” based on data collected by the end of this month. The consultation, which aims to find out the number of populations and their “impact” on communities, will also serve to “update the legal framework and, if necessary, introduce greater flexibility with regard to the development of this species”. .
The Habitats Directive, intended to ensure the conservation of a large number of rare animal and plant species, obliges the Twenty-Seven to establish a “strict protection system” for them, which prohibits “the deliberate killing, capture or disturbance of species in nature” as well as their deterioration or destruction of their breeding or resting places.” However, “exceptions” to this strict protection are permitted “under certain conditions” and always “as a last resort”. The planned assumptions that enable the removal of protection for wolves and other large carnivores in Europe also include “protection of socio-economic interests”.
The new initiative does not necessarily mean an automatic reduction of the current strict protection measures for the wolf, but everything indicates that this is the path it is intended to take.
“We cannot move forward with the review, but we are demanding more data and will decide on this basis what to do,” said the Commission spokesman for the environment, Adalbert Jahnz, on Monday. However, he recognized that the current legal framework offers “very strict” protection and that it is a matter of analyzing “flexibility” that “goes in the direction that local communities demand”.
Cattle
As the Commission now admits, the return of the wolf to EU regions where it was absent for a long time is “increasingly leading to conflicts with local farming and hunting communities, particularly where measures to prevent attacks on farm animals” have not been adequately implemented become”.
Von der Leyen himself called on local and national authorities to act “where necessary,” recalling that current legislation “already allows them to do so.”
The German knows from her own experience the “danger” that wolves can pose: in September last year, one of these protected animals killed her favorite pony, Dolly, in an attack near her home in Lower Saxony. According to the German tabloid Bild, the animal’s body was found by the husband of former German Defense Minister Heiko von der Leyen. The family was very “troubled” by the death of the animal, which was attacked by a wolf, which also killed a dozen sheep and a cow. Shortly before Dolly’s death, three other ponies were killed by other wolves in the same region, the local press reported.
According to Euractiv, the head of the European Executive then sent a letter to her political family, the European People’s Party (EPP), in which she called for more flexibility in the protection rules for this animal and announced that she had asked the Commission services for an authorization “Incoming Analysis” on the endangered status of the wolf. The Commission started collecting data from expert groups and key stakeholders in April, but considers that the information received “does not yet provide a sufficient picture to design further measures”, and the consultation has now been “expanded”.
