Faced with the increasing damage caused by wolves in the EU, the European Commission is no longer ruling out a review of the conservation status of this species, which is protected under the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), but it wants more data before doing so.
On Monday 4 September, it therefore announced that it was inviting local communities, scientists and all interested parties to submit updated data on wolf populations and their impact by 22 September 2023 using the following e-mail address: EC-WOLF-DATA-COLLECTION@ec.europa.eu.
“The concentration of wolf packs in certain regions of Europe has become a real danger to livestock and, potentially, to humans. I call on the local and national authorities to take the necessary measures. Indeed, current European legislation already allows them to do so”, declared the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Without prejudging the decision that will be taken, Adalbert Jahnz, spokesman for the Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius, told the press that “the data available to the Commission is insufficient” and that by “extending the consultation”, the institution was considering “more flexibility, or even, if necessary, a revision of the conservation status” of wolves. “We would be going more in the direction of what the local communities are asking for”, he conceded.
The European Parliament is in favour of changing the conservation status of wolves (see EUROPE 13070/24). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)