Germany EU states initiate weakening of wolf protection measures

Representatives of the EU member states have voted with Germany to weaken the protection of wolves. Several diplomats confirmed this to the German Press Agency in Brussels.

The German government is thus changing its previous course on wolf policy. The decision means that a weaker protection status is not yet bindingly anchored in EU law.

The plan is to lower the protection status of the wolf from strictly protected to protected. This would most likely make it easier to shoot wolves, even if the details have not yet been finalized.

First step

Today's decision by representatives of the EU member states is a first step towards lowering the protection status. Once the decision has also been formally adopted at ministerial level, the EU can submit a corresponding application to downgrade the protection status of the wolf to the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention. This is an international treaty adopted by the Council of Europe in 1979 to protect European wild animals and plants.

If there is a majority in the Standing Committee in favor of the amended protection status, the EU Commission can submit a proposal to amend the protection status of the wolf in EU law. This proposal requires another majority among the EU member states and a majority in the European Parliament. Changes to the proposal are possible.

Discussion in Germany now highly emotional

By changing course, the German government is also reacting to a debate that is becoming increasingly aggressive. Culls of farm animals such as sheep and cattle have recently become more frequent and are becoming a problem for pasture animal husbandry - itself a declared goal of sustainable agriculture. Herd protection measures to ward off wolves are increasingly being overcome, according to recent reports.

While there are reports of wolves making it into stables, the so-called removal - in practice the killing of individual animals - is a problem. Wolf conservationists are taking legal action in administrative courts to prevent them from being shot. Livestock farmers in federal states such as Brandenburg and Lower Saxony are furious. They are calling for population management and even "wolf-free zones".

SDA