The hearing in the European Parliament on the wolf population on Thursday 5 December in Brussels confirmed the differences between MEPs regarding the protection of this predator and the need to protect farmers from attacks on livestock (see EUROPE 12349/24).
This hearing was jointly organised by the Committee on Petitions and the Committee on the Environment, with the ‘active’ participation of the members from the Committee on Agriculture.
The Commission has indicated that, under the Habitats Directive, EU countries are required to report on the conservation status of individual species every 6 years. This process is expected to be completed next year. According to partial data, wolves are “not yet in a favourable conservation status in most assessments” made by countries. The European Environment Agency will work with Member States to finalise the assessments, which will be the subject of a public consultation in January 2020. In June, the first results will be made public and the full results will be available in the autumn of 2020.
Anja Hazekamp (GUE/NGL, the Netherlands), Vice-Chairwoman of the Committee on the Environment, stressed measures to protect wolf populations, including compliance with Council Directive 92/43/EEC (Habitat Directive). She welcomed the position of the competent Commissioner on the protection of the wolf.
Luigi Boitani, president of the Large Carnivores Initiative, spoke of the rapid expansion of wolf populations in Europe (between 13 and 14,000 wolves in the EU, especially in the Carpathians, the Baltic States and Italy).
For Geneviève Carbone, a researcher in ethnozoology and ethology, “setting a maximum number of wolves to be killed per calendar year does not even buy calm in the mountain pastures”. In France, “we still have difficulty in developing a way of living with the wolf and finding a compromise that allows us to achieve something other than destruction”.
Margrete Auken (Greens/EFA, Denmark) denounced the radical actions being taken against wolves. For Michal Wiezik (EPP, Slovakia), the wolf is loved in Europe.
Coexistence is impossible Ulrike Müller (Renew Europe, Germany) asked for solid scientific evidence to see how the wolf should be protected. Anne Sander (EPP, France) raised the problem of the development of hybrid populations (crossbreeding between dogs and wolves) and the very strict conditions imposed on countries to be able to derogate from the directive (see EUROPE 12346/23). Franc Bogovič (EPP, Slovenia) described a situation that “is beyond our control”. Susanna Ceccardi (ID, Italy) has asked for compensation for farmers who have suffered damage from wolves in Tuscany. Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA, Germany) considered it necessary to pay aid to farmers to “limit the damage” caused by the wolf. Finally, Pietro Fiocchi (ECR, Italy) raised the problem of species migration due to wolves (movement of wild boars). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)