The return of wolves to Europe poses a real threat to livestock and potentially to human life, the European Commission warned on Monday, as it announced plans to review the species' protection status.
Responding to increasingly frequent calls from European farmers, the EU executive will launch a new phase in the process, during which it will collect relevant data from local communities and scientists to decide whether to change (downgrade) the wolf's protection status.
“We need an updated set of information and data on the wolf's status so that we can take further measures,” said a European Commission spokesperson.
Currently, the strict protection of this species is set out in the 1992 Habitats Directive, which prohibits the deliberate capture or killing of wolves in the wild.
However, relatively recently, wolf packs have returned to EU regions where they have not been present for decades, attacking livestock and increasing tensions in farming and hunting communities.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was personally affected by a wolf attack; last September, a wolf killed her 30-year-old pony, Dolly, in north-east Germany.
“The concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger to livestock and potentially also to humans,” U. von der Leyen said in a statement on 4 September.
Derogations from the Habitats Directive allow farmers to take targeted measures to protect their crops and livelihoods, such as using certain types of traps to catch wolves.
Von der Leyen called on local and national authorities to take action where necessary.
Farmers versus environmentalists
Farming communities and organisations across Europe have called for the wolf's protection status to be downgraded in response to the growing threat posed by wolf packs.
In a resolution last November, the European Parliament called on the Commission to support the agricultural sector by providing more flexibility to protect livestock from attacks.
The European People's Party, the largest group in the European Parliament, has agreed to such calls, positioning itself as a defender of farmers' rights in key EU environmental reforms.
Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany and Italy are the EU member states where the number of livestock killed by wolves has increased significantly. In Austria, where the number of livestock killed by wolf packs reportedly rose by 230% to 680 animals in 2021, several regions have authorised the culling of wolves to prevent their negative impact on farmers. Environmentalists and NGOs argue that such killing of wolves is a violation of EU law.
In early 2023, the environment ministers of 12 EU countries wrote to European Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius, calling on the executive not to lower the legal protection of the wolf. The letter, initiated by Slovakia, was signed by ministers from Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Germany.
“The slow recovery of the wolf population in the EU should be welcomed, not feared,” said Eurogroup for Animals CEO Reineke Hameleers in response to the European Commission's 4 September announcement.
“Success remains fragile, as most wolf populations in the EU have not yet reached a favourable conservation status. After investing all these efforts and funds, lowering the wolf's protection status would not only affect their welfare but also jeopardise their survival,” added R. Hameleers.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the wolf is a species whose status and occurrence in the wild is of least concern, and since the 1970s its population in Europe has been increasing and its range expanding.