B-R8: Keep the wolf strictly protected! And make all member states respect its protection!

Due to its strict protection in the Habitats Directive, the wolf has been able
to return and increase its populations in many member states. The return of the
wolf to regions from which it had once been eradicated marks a significant
conservation achievement.

However, wolf populations in the EU are still in unfavourable or inadequate
conservation status in six out of seven biogeographical regions, according to
the most recent assessments done under the Habitats Directive. The latest IUCN
assessment shows that six out of nine transboundary wolf populations in the EU
are vulnerable or near-threatened. Thus, the main objective of both the Bern
Convention and the Habitats Directive – to ensure the restoration and
conservation of endangered species – has not yet been reached, and there is no
scientific basis to support an EU-wide weakening of the legal protection of the
species.

Therefore, we want the Commission to cancel any plan for weakening the
protection status of the wolf. And if the Commission puts forward proposals for
such weakening, the Parliament and the Council of Ministers should reject such
proposals.

For the sake of not only the wolf, but of all species and habitats protected by
the EU legislation, it is also important and urgent that the Commission takes
further steps to make all member states respect the legal protection of the
wolf. Now, wolf hunting in Sweden has been an infringement case since 2010, and
the Commission has sent reasoned opinions twice (!), most recently in 2015,
clarifying that it is a violation of the Habitats Directive. Unless the
Commission takes the case to the Court, there is major risk that other member
states follow the bad example and set reference values of only a few hundred
animals for wolves and other large carnivores, and then hunt the populations
down so they become fragmented into small, isolated and vulnerable remnants.

This is not merely an issue about carnivores or the Habitats Directive. A
reasoned opinion is supposed to be the last step before an infringement is taken
to the Court. If the Commission fails to take the next step, it is a signal to
all member states that they do not need to respect the EU environmental
legislation. Hence, the continued inactivity of the Commission puts at severe
risk the credibility of all EU environmental legislation, and, in fact, the
credibility of EU legislation in general.

Therefore, the European Green Party: