A protected species
Unfortunately, the majority of the European Parliament did not vote in favor of the amendment which would have allowed the level of wolf protection taking it from a strictly protected species to a protected species, an objective that would have allowed easier application of the derogation regime provided for in art. 16 of the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC).
Large carnivores
European Commissioner Janez Lenarcic, who spoke at the end of the debate in Parliament on the Resolution on large carnivores, which unfortunately calls for greater financial resources to encourage the coexistence of large carnivores with human activities, to which he wanted to add the amendment of "downgrading ” in question, he reaffirmed his intransigent position which can be summarized in these concepts:
a) The size of the sums of money requested in Europe for compensation for the damage caused as a result of the depredations caused to livestock by large carnivores is infinitesimal compared to the sums allocated for the CAP. Therefore, if large carnivores cause damage to livestock due to their depredations, the European Commission is available to compensate for this damage using Community funds;
b) The level of the populations of large carnivores in Europe is not yet sufficient to prevent their
danger of extinction;
c) The Commission does not know of any cases of aggression against humans by large carnivores, excluding some rare events that occurred in some Eastern European countries where there have been sporadic cases of aggression mainly caused by bears attempting to protect their offspring;
d) Therefore, for the moment there are no objective reasons to justify a lowering of the level of protection of large carnivores in Europe.
An adequate plan to put in place
Here are the reasons given by the European Commission for refusing the request to lower the level of protection of large carnivores in Europe. Having taken note of this defeat at European level, Italy being the nation that has the highest concentration of wolves in Europe, an adequate national management and containment plan must be prepared in our nation, as is done by many other countries to unchanged Community directives, a plan which will then have to be submitted to the scrutiny of the European Commission, which has recently shown itself to be more sensitive and understanding towards the growing protests of many European citizens, especially after the pony of the European Commissioner Ursula Von Der Leven was recently mauled by the wolves. This is the state of affairs and this is the best possible solution before irreversible damage is caused in Italy to livestock, the economy, employment and the ecosystem. The management and containment of wolves in Italy is no longer a possible option but an urgent necessity (Hon. Sergio Berlato – Italian Member of the European Parliament – National President of the Association for Rural Culture).