Renew Europe MEPs Benoît Cassart (MR) and Hilde Vautmans (Open-VLD) welcome the request to change the wolf's protection status ahead of the renegotiation of the Bern Convention.
The EU's Committee of Permanent Representatives voted today in favour of downgrading the wolf's protection status by one level, from "strictly protected" to "protected", paving the way for management measures. The final decision will be taken on 26 September by the Ministers of the 27 Member States within the Council.As a farmer, Benoît Cassart says he is pleased with a first step that will make it possible to speed up the revision of the 1992 Habitats Directive, which determines the status of large predators. The arrival of the wolf in Belgium and the damage to cattle and sheep farms show just how urgent it is to change the wolf's status.
“In September 2023 the Commission declared that the return of the wolf to Europe represents a genuine danger for livestock and human life. At last we are moving from words to action! This does not mean eliminating the wolf entirely, we are committed to biodiversity, but the management measures will make it possible to protect livestock farming within a logic of coexistence”, declared Benoît Cassart, member of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee.