AM-4-2 to 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.

Currently, it is estimated that there are around 23,000 wolves in Europe. Wolves have made a comeback in all mainland European countries, with some regions hosting populations exceeding 1,000 individuals. Additionally, wolves are expanding their territories.

However, this ongoing spread is resulting in more frequent conflicts with human activities, particularly due to increasing livestock damage caused by wolves. The predation of livestock by wolves is a central point of contention in the wolf debate, even though it represents a relatively minor issue in terms of overall numbers across Europe, and the economic impact appears manageable at a national level.

Nevertheless, the concentration of wolf-related incidents in specific areas creates significant tensions with local residents and communities. Adjusting the protection status of wolves from strictly protected to simply protected could help alleviate these local conflicts while ensuring the long-term survival of wolves in Europe.

Changing the protection status of wolves from strictly protected to protected is the basis for being able to better pacify local conflicts and at the same time guarantee the wolf a permanent existence in Europe.

Instead of extensive protection for individual animals, the focus in the future will primarily be on the management of wolf populations, taking into account regional and local conditions. By adjusting national legislation, it will be possible to respond more quickly to threats from individual animals or packs, for example, if they have learned to overcome livestock fences. This will permanently strengthen the acceptance of wolves in the population.

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:

• Calls on the Commission to cancel any plan for weakening the protection
  status of the wolf

• Calls on the Parliament and the Council of Ministers to reject any
  proposal for weakening the protection status of the wolf

• Calls on the Commission to take, without further delay, the infringement
  case regarding wolf hunting to the Court