In an opinion piece recently published in The Brussels Times, two of Sweden’s most important nature conservation NGO’s urge the EU Commission to immediately take the infringement case about the country’s wolf cull to the EU Court of Justice.
The open letter from the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and the Swedish Carnivore Association points out that the EU Commission has so far not taken legal action, despite Sweden now for 15 years having conducted extensive quota hunting on its small, isolated and still endangered wolf population, acting as if the wolf’s protection status was already downgraded long ago.
Three things are of extraordinary importance
- “Sweden must be judged here on basis of the strict legislation that was in force at the time of the violations, regardless of the decision by the EU Parliament yesterday”, says Ann Dahlérus at the Swedish Carnivore Association, one of the signatories of the opinion piece”
- “In every aspect, this hunt is a flagrant violation of the EU’s strict legislation on the protection of endangered species. The Commission’s inaction on the issue has made it possible for Sweden to normalize annual trophy/quota hunting of wolves, in direct violation of EU legislation, which has prevented the Swedish wolf population from in reality achieving Favourable Conservation Status (FCS), which is a fundamental requirement according to the EU,” says Magnus Orrebrant, Secretary General of the Swedish Carnivore Association.
- “Regardless of any future changes to the law, the requirement remains that the Swedish wolf population, in order to be hunted, must have achieved a favourable conservation status. A legal review must therefore be carried out of the Swedish government’s criticized claim that the severely inbred and genetically depleted wolf population would be genetically viable and thus withstand also being almost halved further, from 300 to 170.
Read further in the opinion piece: “The European Commission is failing to enforce EU law and protect Swedish wolves”
For more information, contact:
Ann Dahlerus, Senior Advisor, Swedish Carnivore Association
anne.dahlerus@gmail.com +46(0)768-500 653 www.rovdjur.se
Magnus Orrebrant, Secretary General, Swedish Carnivore Association magnus.orrebrant@rovdjur.se +46(0)705-168931 www.rovdjur.se
Links
- “Take Sweden’s wolf killing to the EU Court” (English)
- Science, policy and laws to prevent the killing of wolves in Europe (English)
- Boitani L., Kaczensky P., Alvares F et al. (2022). Assessment of the conservation status of the Wolf (Canis lupus) in Europe. (English)
- Di Bernardi C, Chapron G, Kaczensky P et al. (2025) Continuing recovery of wolves in Europe. (English)
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