Wolf hunting could return to western Europe with EU move

Commission’s plan to downgrade animal’s ‘strictly protected’ status not based on scientific evidence, say conservationists

Wolves could be hunted again across western Europe after the European Commission moved to roll back protections, in what lawyers said was an ominous move against effective environmental laws.

The commission has proposed that EU member states downgrade the wolf’s status under the Berne convention from “strictly protected” to “protected” after two decades in which the species has returned to many countries from which it has been extinct for decades, including Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.