Representatives of the EU Member States took an additional step on Wednesday in the legislative process to adopt a Commission proposal which will lead to the downgrading of the protection status of the endangered wolf in Europe.
Coreper, a committee of EU ambassadors which prepares the decisions in the Council, approved the Council’s mandate on changing the protection status of the wolf from ‘strictly protected' to ‘protected' following a previous vote last December in the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention.
According to the mandate, the objective is to “provide more flexibility in managing wolf populations across EU countries, in order to improve coexistence and to minimise the impact of the growing population of the species, including socioeconomic challenges”. However, Member states may have stricter protection levels in place according to a press release.
Qualified majority or unanimity
As previously reported, the Commission proposal has been controversial in the EU and the EU Member States were a long time divided on it. Last September, the proposal was adopted by a qualified majority of the Member States.
This changed to a unanimous EU vote in beginning of December when the EU on behalf of its 27 Member States and some other countries supported the amendment to the Bern Convention. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Monaco, Montenegro and the United Kingdom opposed the amendment. Tunisia and Türkiye abstained.
The change entered into force on 7 March 2025, three months after the formal adoption, but needs also to be adopted by the European Parliament and the Council. The Parliament aims to adopt its position in May 2025. If this position is identical to the Council’s mandate, the Council will then formally adopt the amendment to the EU Habitats Directive.
According to the Habitats Directive (article 19, second paragraph), “amendments as are necessary for adapting Annex IV to technical and scientific progress shall be adopted by the Council acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission”. The annex includes the protection of wolves.
Asked about the discussion in Coreper, the Polish EU Presidency replied that there was sufficient support for the Commission proposal and declined to comment on the positions of Member States. The Council position contains no changes vis-à-vis the initial Commission’s proposal on the amendment of the Habitats Directive.
Ombudsman inquiry still ongoing
In the meantime, the Commission’s input for its proposal is subject to an inquiry by the European Ombudsman. The Ombudsman at that time, Emily O'Reilly, received a complaint in September 2024 from ClientEarth, an international environmental NGO, against the European Commission on how it carried out “a targeted data collection” on the impact of the wolf population in the EU.
The data collection was announced in beginning of September 2023 and closed less than one month later by the Commission.
According to the complaint, the Commission failed to comply with the Better Regulation Guidelines on stakeholder consultation when it invited the public to submit up-to-date data on the wolf population. The Commission’s statement that wolves pose a real danger for livestock and for humans was misleading and not based on scientific evidence.
After a month of analysis of the complaint, the Ombudsman decided to open an inquiry in order to understand better how the Commission carried out the targeted data collection and sent two simple questions to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The President has been personally affected as her pony Dolly was reportedly killed by a wolf in 2022.
A spokesperson of the Commission declined to comment on the on-going inquiry and recalled “the consistently constructive and effective working relations between the Commission and the Ombudsman, with the common aim to promote good administrative practices”.
Alleged mismanagement is normally the reason for opening inquiries. Asked if this was reason for opening an inquiry in this case, a spokesperson of the Ombudsman replied that the inquiry was opened following a complaint “to better understand how the Commission carried out this targeted data collection”.
The spokesperson confirmed that the Ombudsman had received the Commission’s reply on 28 March and is currently analysing it but could not say if the analysis will be completed by early May when the decisions by the European Parliament and the Council are expected to be taken. O'Reilly finished her mandate in February and her successor Teresa Anjinho will finalise the inquiry.
