Demands for the relaxation of the protection status for wolves are given new fuel. Agriculture Minister Sven Schulze welcomes considerations in Brussels and also calls for action in Saxony-Anhalt.
Magdeburg/Brussels (dpa/sa) - Saxony-Anhalt's Agriculture Minister Sven Schulze (CDU) welcomes considerations of examining the protection status of wolves at EU level. Schulze announced on Wednesday that he wanted to hold further talks in Brussels in the coming days. He is currently Chairman of the Conference of Agriculture Ministers. The number of wolf packs is increasing. "It is becoming more and more urgent for us to invest in herd protection. The costs for this are constantly increasing," says Schulze. "They are sometimes a threat to the livelihoods of grazing livestock farmers. The state of Saxony-Anhalt supports the livestock owners with all of its options - it will hardly be possible to manage this in the long term."
In Brussels and Strasbourg, conservative politicians in particular are currently campaigning for wolves to be protected less strictly. In a legally non-binding resolution last week, the European Parliament called on the European Commission to downgrade the protection status of wolves and bears. The background to this is complaints from farmers that the predators are killing livestock such as sheep.
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen is said to have announced that she would comply with this request, as reported by the newspapers of the Funke media group. "I have instructed the Commission services to carry out an in-depth analysis of the data," she wrote in a letter to Union MEPs, according to the report. However, it remains to be seen whether the analysis actually shows that the protection status should be relaxed.
Wolves are a strictly protected species under nature protection in Germany. Shooting is forbidden unless the wolves, who are actually shy of humans, behave aggressively when they encounter them. Then the Federal Nature Conservation Act allows a shooting.
