Wolves, however, to shoot. EU countries have agreed to change the status of the protection of these animals

EU member states have agreed to change the status of the protection of wolves of the “strictly protected” species to “protected”. The European Commission requested changes in the law in response to the growing population of wolves in the EU. In practice, this will allow these animals to shoot.

Over 20,000 live in Europe Wolves, and their population has almost doubled in recent years. This history of success in the protection of the species, however, led to growing conflicts with farmers in some regions. Wolves are increasingly killing farm animals (according to EC estimates, 65.5 thousand per year), which resulted in farmers' appeals to the authorities to limit the number of predators.

The wolf has so far been a species strictly protected in EU legislation. By changing the status of its protection in the so -called Habitats Directive Member States will have greater flexibility in managing the population of these animals. In practice, this means that countries will be able to issue a decision to shoot if they think that there is a need.

At the same time, countries will still be able to place the wolf on the list of species strictly protected in national legislation and apply more stringent protection measures to them.

The amended directive will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the EU Official Journal, i.e. June 24. Member States will have 18 months to adapt to it.

The EC came out with the initiative to soften the protection of wolves for the first time. The media connected this intention with the loss personally suffered by the head of the EC Ursula von der Leyen – the wolf had previously killed her pony Dolly on a farm in Germany.

According to the EC estimates of 2021, in the EU the most wolves live in Italy (about 3,000 individuals), Romania (about 2.5-3 thousand), Bulgaria (about 2.7 thousand) and Poland (about 1.9 thousand).

Environmentalists are alerting that the wolf population in Europe has still not rebuilt, and Brussels' proposal was based on unconfirmed data. In December 2023, 300 NGOs protested against loosening the protection of wolves. (PAP)

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