Europe News

The EU has moved a step further towards legalising the routine culling or hunting of wolves, with governments agreeing today to propose changes to an international convention on wildlife conservation in a move slammed by green groups.EU diplomats agreed behind closed doors to vote in favour of tabling a motion to downgrade the status of wolves under the 1979 Bern Convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats, a proposal put forward by the European Commission last December. Related Brussels proposes lighter protection for Europe’s growing wolf population The tipping of the balance in favour of the EU executive’s position appears to have been down in large part to Germany, the most powerful voice under the weighted voting system used in the EU Council.Ministers are due to hold a formal vote on the proposal tomorrow (26 September). Only Ireland and Spain intend to vote against the proposal, according to diplomatic sources, with a few smaller member states planning to abstain.Under the proposal, the status of the wolf would be downgraded from ‘strictly protected’ to ‘protected’ under the Bern Convention, which would then allow the EU to amend its Habitats Directive to ease protection for the species which, under current rules, can only be killed with specific authorization in extenuating circumstances.Green groups were unanimous in their condemnation of the governments’ decision.“By catering to populistic scaremongering campaigns and abandoning facts and pragmatic solutions, both the EU and the German government are further undermining European democracy and cohesion,” said Sophie Ruysschaert, a nature restoration specialist with BirdLife Europe.For Sabien Leemans, senior biodiversity policy officer at WWF European Policy Office, the move sends a “disastrous and shameful signal from Europe” less than a month before world leaders are due to assemble in Colombia for the conference of parties (COP16) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.“How can we ask other regions to protect their biodiversity and live with species like tigers, lions, or elephants, when we cannot live together with the wolf?” Leemans asked.By contrast, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) congratulated itself for an intergovernmental agreement decision it put down to “years of persistent pressure” from the largest group in the European Parliament.“This is a major breakthrough in tackling the sharp increase in wolf populations, which pose a growing threat to pastoral farming, tourism, and rural communities across Europe," said MEP Herbert Dorfmann, the EPP’s agriculture policy lead.Peter Liese, who heads the EPP delegation to the parliamentary environment committee, echoed Dorfmann’s comments, while asserting that “people are worried about the increase in the population of wolves in Europe”.The European Commission welcomed the provisional agreement, stressing that EU member states would be obliged to “maintain a favourable conservation status for the species even after the change in status”.“When it comes to any changes in EU law, we have also been very clear that what we are talking about is the wolf and only the wolf,” A spokesperson told reporters.Copa-Cogeca, the most powerful conventional farming lobby group in Brussels, also welcomed the signal from governments. “We are glad to see the European Union institutions listening to the needs of farmers and rural dwellers despite the many pressures from those who often don't have to deal with the consequences of attacks,” it said in a statement.Following endorsement by ministers tomorrow, the EU proposal is set to be tabled at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention scheduled for early December.

Italy and Germany are mustering support from other EU members for a call to relax EU targets for reducing car CO2 emissions and reconsider a 2035 ban on the sale of petrol and diesel models, Italian industry minister Adolfo Urso said in Brussels this evening.It was now “certain” that the ban – actually a zero limit on tailpipe emissions – would not be achieved, and the two countries plan to propose at an EU Council summit tomorrow (26 September) that a review clause in the legislation be brought forward from the end of 2026 to early 2025, Urso said.Echoing recent warnings from manufacturers, Urso said Europe’s car industry had “collapsed” and predicted “tens of thousands” of redundancies in the sector unless the EU changed course.The EU had two choices, the Italian minister said: firstly to keep the target, and create the conditions to allow the car industry to achieve it – an approach favoured by German economy minister Robert Habeck.  “Or if we fail to do all this we just have to…postpone the objectives,” he said.Urso's statements came three months after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni dismissed the 2035 ban as “ideological madness”, and just days after an appeal from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), which reacted to a dip in e-car sales last week by going public with a call to postpone the application of more stringent emissions limits.The influential Brussels-based group – whose members include BMW, Ford, Renault, Volkswagen and Volvo – warned on 19 August that new car registrations fell below 644,000 in August, a more than 18% drop compared to the same month in 2023. Sales of electric cars saw the largest proportional drop, with market share falling by almost a third from the 21% recorded last year.“We are missing crucial conditions to reach the necessary boost in production and adoption of zero-emission vehicles: charging and hydrogen refilling infrastructure, as well as a competitive manufacturing environment, affordable green energy, purchase and tax incentives, and a secure supply of raw materials, hydrogen and batteries,” ACEA’s board of directors said.Currently carmakers must ensure that the emissions of all the cars they sell in a given year average no more than 115.1 grammes per kilometre, and the limit is set to tighten to 93.6g next year – a figure that will be harder to achieve as electric vehicle sales fall in a market increasing dominated by larger SUV models.Facing what it called the “daunting prospect of…multi-billion-euro fines” next year, ACEA urged the EU to implement “urgent relief measures”. But the European Commission appears to believe the blame for its predicament lies at least partly with the industry itself.“There’s still 15 months of car sales ahead and the industry has time…to meet their targets,” a Commission spokesperson told reporters yesterday (24 September). “It is also worth recalling the target for 2025 was agreed in 2019 and…we have designed these policies in a way that the industry has time to adapt.”Further emissions reduction deadlines adopted last year mean that only cars and vans emitting no CO2 at all can be sold in the EU as of 2035 – a de facto ban on petrol and diesel models.However, in a last-minute tweak forced by Germany, a clause was inserted calling for a review in 2026 on potentially allowing the continued registration of cars intended to be run on synthetic ‘low-carbon’ fuels – which would amount to a reprieve for the internal combustion engine.The automotive lobby also wants this review, and a similar one for heavy goods vehicles due a year later, to be brought forward to 2025. Industrial sectors, from generators to battery manufacturers, that stand to gain from an accelerated electrification of Europe’s energy system are lobbying hard for the EU to stick to its current targets.