The strictly protected status of European wolves has been confirmed in two judgments by the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg this month, but the political right is looking to open up the growing population to hunting.
ADVERTISEMENTThe northern Spanish region of Castilla y León cannot permit the hunting of wolves while they are protected at national level, the EU Court of Justice has found in the second such ruling this month after a similar verdict in Austria.
The judgment handed down today means the government of the largest of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities, led since 1987 by the conservative Partido Popular (PP), cannot continue to recognise the wolf as fair game for hunters, who were granted a quota of 339 animals in an area north of the Duero river over the period 2019-21.
Spain’s left-wing government extended strict protection to all wolves in September 2021 on the initiative of environment minister and nominee for the next European commission Teresa Ribera, but extant regional exceptions could continue to apply under certain circumstances. Now the ECJ has ruled this is contrary to the EU Habitats Directive.
“Indeed, the wolf cannot be designated as a huntable species in a part of the territory of a member state when its conservation status at national level is unfavourable,” the Luxembourg-based court said in a statement.
Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones, regional environment minister for Castilla y León, acknowledged the ruling while noting that no hunting had taken place since the national law was introduced in 2021, according to local media reports.
Today’s ruling follows a similar judgment on 11 July, where the ECJ found that derogations from the general prohibition of wolf hunting under the directive applied by the Austrian federal state of Tyrol cannot be granted unless the animal is in favourable conservation status as defined under the law, which dates from 1992.
Both cases had been referred to the ECJ by national courts in response to cases brought by nature protection groups.
The strictly protected status that wolves currently enjoy across the EU could be in question, however, with the European Commission having announced late last year that it plans to push for a change in category under the Bern Convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats, a necessary preliminary to easing protection under EU law.
The Commission has pointed to wolf numbers growing to around 20,000 across Europe – but critics accuse the EU executive of basing its decision largely on anecdotal evidence, or even that its president Ursula von der Leyen might bear a personal grudge after a family pony named Dolly was savaged by a rogue wolf in 2022.
Earlier this month in an exclusive interview with Euronews, the environment policy coordinator for the European People’s Party listed easing the protection status of wolves among the group’s political priorities for the coming legislative cycle.
