The prayers of the rural world to lower the legal protection of the wolf in the European Union have been heard. The increase in attacks on livestock has led the European Commission, up to now opposed to any change, to open the door to a reduction in the protection requirements of the carnivore, a species strictly protected by the habitats directive. The fact that it was the president herself, Ursula von der Leyen, who made the announcement gives an idea of the political significance that the conflict had gained and of her interest, less than a year before the European elections, in putting out this fire.
"The concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger for livestock and potentially also for humans," von der Leyen admitted yesterday. “I urge local and national authorities to take action where necessary. In fact, current EU legislation already allows them to do so", he stressed in a statement in which the popular German expresses its willingness to review the legal framework and guarantee greater flexibility to the authorities when it comes to acting and granting, when deem necessary, hunting permits.
Von der Leyen herself became the involuntary protagonist of a controversy a year ago that illustrates the pulse that is being waged from the rural world against part of the green agenda promoted by the community executive during this legislature. It happened on September 1 when a wolf entered a farm in the idyllic town of Burgdorf-Beinhorn (northwestern Germany) at night and killed a pony. The animal, called Dolly, was 30 years old and was the favorite pet of the former German minister, who had posed in photographs with the animal on numerous occasions. They found her body the next morning. “The entire family is extremely shocked by the news,” she commented on her Von der Leyen day.
The case went to court and what could have remained a sad event became a convenient example, for critics of the current regulations, of the problems that the increase in wolf populations is creating in some parts of Europe. The predator that ended Dolly's life was identified (GW950m) and it was not the first time it had attacked animals in the area (a dozen deaths of cattle were attributed to it) so, after several comings and goings , a court in Hannover authorized his execution. It is not clear who requested the drastic measure (von der Leyen's spokesman said it was not her), but at the beginning of the year, ignoring the protests of the Society for the Protection of Wolves, the judge gave a week's deadline to the hunters to act. The specimen in question, however, managed to get away and it is not clear if it lives or not.
Von der Leyen's own political family, both the German CDU and the European People's Party, have declared themselves in favor of relaxing the regulations in response to conflicts with farmers and hunters that have arisen over the return of the animal to different regions. European countries where for years it has been absent. As the courts debated the fate of the wolf that killed Dolly, the political scope of the debate grew. In November, a coalition of conservative groups managed to pass a resolution in the European Parliament to ask the community executive for changes in the level of protection of both wolves and bears to guarantee "a balanced coexistence between people, livestock and large carnivores". . In response, the governments of a dozen countries – including Spain – asked Brussels by letter not to give in. The wolf, they defend, still needs protection and plays "an indispensable role in regulating the abundance of game populations."
Von der Leyen seems to have seen the ears of the wolf. With the beginning of the political term, he has decided to face the conflict and has decreed the beginning of "a new phase" in his work to respond to the challenges posed by the return of the wolves. Local communities, scientists and other interested parties have until September 22 to send Brussels information on the current population of the animal as well as any unintended effects of the population increase. Conservation groups estimate that there are 19,000 specimens in Europe, 25% more than ten years ago.
