Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-002289/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Sophia Kircher (PPE)
Having the wolf’s protection status downgraded is a hard-won and important step for the future of agriculture. The mountain farming economy, especially in the Alpine region, is suffering severe losses and increasingly being pushed to the edge of its existence. It is good that the EU institutions have decided to recognise the situation and move the wolf – which has not been endangered for quite some time – to Annex V of the Habitats Directive. However, lowering the protection status will not suffice if the wolf’s favourable conservation status still has to be proven at national level before it can be withdrawn. In the spirit of an EU that stands for cross-regional cooperation, the best way to solve the issue would be to have a regionally differentiated approach, especially for wolf-stricken areas such as the Alpine region.
- 1.Will the Commission take account of larger contiguous spatial areas, such as the Alpine biogeographical region, when assessing the favourable conservation status, rather than the national conservation status?
- 2.In cases where the conservation status is favourable at the cross-border population level, why does the Member State have to provide additional evidence of this at national and local level?
- 3.How will it guarantee the future of mountain farming, which plays a key role in the Alpine cultural landscape, despite the wolf’s reintroduction?
Submitted: 5.6.2025