At a working group meeting on Monday 24 March, the Member States’ environment experts supported the adoption of the European Commission’s proposal to revise the protection status of the wolf in the Habitats Directive, as submitted by the European Commission on 7 March (see EUROPE 13595/19).
The 7 March proposal to revise the Habitats Directive is limited to the wolf, whose protection status would be changed from ‘strictly protected species’ to ‘protected species’, in line with the change adopted under the Bern Convention in December 2024 (see EUROPE 13537/15). According to diplomatic sources, the Member States do not intend to open up the modification to other species. Spain and Belgium abstained.
For its part, the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment intends to use an urgency procedure to adopt the proposal as it stands (see EUROPE 13603/18). (Original version in French by Florent Servia)