The European Parliament approves the downgrading of the wolf's protection status

The European Parliament voted in favor of downgrading the wolf's protected status on Thursday, May 8. At the plenary session in Strasbourg, MEPs overwhelmingly supported (371 votes in favor, 162 against, and 37 abstentions) the Commission's proposal to change the animal's protected status from "strictly protected" to "protected."

The text aims to transpose into European law the recent amendments to the Bern Convention on the Conservation of Wildlife. The right (EPP), the far right, and the liberals voted in favor, unlike the environmentalists and the radical left, while the socialists were divided.

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" Member states will now have greater flexibility in managing their wolf populations in order to improve coexistence with humans and minimise the impact of the growing wolf population in the EU," Parliament said after the vote . The wolf, which was exterminated in several countries, including France, at the beginning of the 20th century, has made a major comeback in recent years, reaching 20,300 individuals in the European Union by 2023.

Concretely, this legislative change will facilitate the shooting and culling of wolves in regions where the animal's proximity to livestock is deemed too threatening. "Member states will remain responsible for wolf management plans, but will have more flexibility than today. I hope this will facilitate coexistence," argued Herbert Dorfmann, an Italian EPP MEP, on Wednesday, May 7.

"We are not issuing a killing permit , we are giving more latitude for local exemptions, the wolf remains a protected species," said Renew MEP Pascal Canfin to AFP. The downgrading of the wolf's status should not change much in France , Dominique Humbert, president of the Wolf Observatory, judged at the end of the year. Paris already authorizes, by way of derogation, the killing of the canid under very specific conditions to protect herds.

Thus, in France, wolves, which regulate the populations of certain wild animals, such as roe deer or wild boars likely to cause damage to forests or crops, saw their numbers decrease by 8% at the end of the winter of 2023-2024.

For their part, nature and animal protection associations are warning of a risk of weakening the species. Jean-David Abel, in charge of the wolf file at the France Nature Environnement association, denounced in Libération at the end of December a downgrading that was "purely political" and "not based on science." This Thursday, Ilaria Di Silvestre, spokesperson for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, also expressed her dissatisfaction: "There is no data justifying a lowering of the level of protection, but the European institutions have chosen to ignore science."

The EPP, the largest group in Parliament and the political family of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, initiated the tabling of the text, which arose from the observation of "an increase in conflicts between wolves and livestock farmers." Since her old pony was killed by a wolf in 2022 on her family's property in northern Germany, the president has vehemently defended the downgrading of the animal's protected status, warning of the "real danger" wolf packs pose to livestock in certain regions.

In recent years, however, the number of livestock attacks has stabilized at around 12,000 per year, even though the number of wolves has increased significantly. This phenomenon can be explained, among other things, by measures to protect livestock and the expansion of the predator into less pastoral areas.

The draft law must now be formally approved by the Council. The directive will then enter into force twenty days after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU, and member states will then have eighteen months to comply with it. However, the latter "must continue to ensure a favourable conservation status of the species," the European Parliament recalls, and can continue to list it as a strictly protected species in their national legislation .